47 
PREFACE. 
SmcE the publication of this work, in 1829, it has been ofU^n 
revised, and new genera and species of Southern and Western 
plants, as well as those of more JVorthern latitudes, have been 
added. The Flora embraces descriptions of the indigenous plants 
of the United States which the pupil will be likely to meet with, 
especially of the Phenogamia, as well as a great proportion of 
cultivated exotics. 
Researches in Physiological Botany have, of late, been dili- 
gently pursued, and the valuable discoveries recently made in 
this department are incorporated into the present edition. 
The Natural System of Botany will be found here fully ex- 
hibited in all its essential features according to the method of 
Lindley, and with full descriptions of Natural Orders. 
Professor Lindley, in the preface to his late valuable work on 
the " Yegetable Kingdom," remarks, that in England little had 
been known until recently of the labors and discoveries of the 
scientific men out of that country, and claims for himself little 
more than the honor of bringing these discoveries to the notice 
of his countrymen. 
The Author of this work, in its preparation more than twentj 
years since, availed herself of the most valuable foreign works 
consulting English books less than those of the French and 
German school of Botany, so that in reality much that Lindley 
brings forward as of "foreign origin," had previously found a 
place in this work ; as the doctrine of the metamorphosis of 
mgetahle organs, the tissues of plants in structural hotany, and 
many of the phenomena of vegetable physiology. 
Attempts to break up the old landmarks of the science of 
Botany, and to present it under an entirely new form, tend to 
repel from its pursuit many of its devoted friends, and to dis- 
courage beginners, by offering at the commencement nothing 
which the mind can regard with pleasure. 
"No one," says Lindley, "who has had experience in the prog- 
ress of Botany as a science, can doubt that it has been more 
impeded by the repulsive appearance of the names it employs, 
than by any other cause whatever ; and that in fact this circum- 
sta/tice has proved an invincihle obstacle to its becoming the 
serious occupation of those who are unacquainted with the 
learned languages." 
