Vlll 
PREFACE. 
Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, that the present 
edition may be considered, in those respects, a new 
work. 
In the statements I have made, it has been my 
wish to render due credit to all persons for the 
discoveries by which they may severally have con- 
tributed to the advancement of the science ; and 
if I have on any occasion either omitted to do so, or 
assumed to myself observations which belong to 
others, it has been unknowingly or inadvertently. It 
is, however, impracticable, and if practicable it would 
not be worth while, to remember upon all occasions 
from what particular sources information may have 
been derived. Discoveries, when once commu- 
nicated to 'the world, become public property: they 
are thrown into the common stock for mutual bene- 
fit ; and it is only in the case of debatable opinions, 
or of any recent and unconfirmed observations, that 
it really interests the world that authorities should 
be quoted at all. In the language of a highly valued 
friend, when writing upon another subject, — “ The 
advanced state of a science is but the accumulation 
of the discoveries and inventions of many : to refer 
each of these to its author is the business of the 
history of science, but does not belong to a work 
which professes merely to give an account of the 
science as it is : all that is generally acknowledged 
must pass current from author to author.” ^ 
London^ May, J839. 
* Brett’s Principles of Astronomy, p. v. 
