CONCLUSION 
70 
my attention and critical investigation. The 
40 articles of this Lexicon have already proved 
how many striking mistakes and palpable errors 
of Linneus, Michaux, Pursh, Hooker, Nuttal, 
Beck, Eaton, Torrey, Elliot, and others exist 
undetected and unnoticed by our writers and 
compilers. At this rate the 2000 Genera will 
afford 5000 similar blunders. 
It is a weary and ungrateful task to revise er- 
rors ; but it must be done : Since every expo- 
sed error is equal to a discovery. I shall not 
even spare my own, as we are all liable to them, 
and we improve by age and experience. If all 
would be as careful and as liberal as I am, 
the science might soon cease to be involved in 
hidden groups of neglected genera and species, 
or in useless synonyms of mistaken plants, and 
improper names. 
Meantime in order to name properly my new 
American plants, it has been needful to study 
over again and revise many Genera and Natu- 
ral families ; since several are yet in utter con- 
fusion, by the usual practice of Botanists to refer 
plants at random, and without attending to the 
actual characters, to force them into genera 
where they do not belong. 
This arduous undertaking was indispensable, 
and has led me to revise, reform, divide and fix 
several natural families and a crowd of genera ; 
but such a labor altho’ connected with our Amer- 
ican Botany, applies nevertheless to the whole 
Globe, and has become my Synopsis Flora 
Telluriana, or synoptical Mantissa of 2000 
New Genera, Species, Orders, &c., which will 
be the companion to this North American Flora, 
and the complement of my Botanical researches. 
Being in hope of obtaining the Herbarium of 
my late friend Z. Collins, which contains many 
