\r 
OF Jff WGEXERA AND SPECIES OF ANIMALS, PLANTS, 8iC'. 
DISCOVERER IN NORTH AMERICA: 
BIC. S. RAFlMESqUE, 
Professor of Botany and Natural History in Transylvania University, at Lexington 
in Kentucky, and member of several Learned Soeieties in the 
United States and in Europe, SiC. 
Exr.nTroN- usfolus and ixcnEASKs knowledge. 
Til-si Amwial XwiYvb^T, foY 18^0. 
DE Die A TED 10 DR. PV. E. LKdCH, 
OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LOKDOX. 
EVER since 1S16, I had issued proposils for publishing; a Periodical Work un- 
der the title oi Annals of JVatiire : various circumstances have prevented me from 
carrying the original plan into execution, and have now induced me to publish it 
:iiniually or casually (instead of quarterly) in the present form, without confining 
iTiyself to any particular time, ndr extejit ; but giving a preference to my own 
unimblishcd discoveries and those of my friends, over those of other Naturalists 
and Botanists. Every number shall form a peculiar tract, which shall be sold sepa- 
rate. 
The difficulty of ascertaining sometimes wiiether my discoveries are totally 
new, will not prevent me from offering those which I consider such. If a few 
shall afterwards prove otherwise, the blame, if any, must lay with tliose European 
compilers, who give us now and then their bulky, costly & learned Cyclopedias, 
Dictionaries of Natjiral History, and Systems, without following the wise llnnean 
plan of detailing all the former discoveries. This is particularly the case with 
Zoologists, who from the time of the compilation of Gmelin, published about 30 
years ago, have never thought of giving us a new and complete description of all 
the animals discovered since ; nor has any complete account of our own animals e- 
ver been published. In such a state of the science, & considering the difficulty of 
procuring many Eui-opean works on this continent, even by applying to their au- 
thors, I shall not be prevented from publishing my new species, because It may 
happen that one out of fifty may be previously noticed in some costly and inacces- 
sible work. 1 shall however be ready, at all times, to correct any such, or other 
unavoidable errors and oversights. 
I have often felt the need of lajing before the learned public, and in a concise 
and linnean shape, my numerous discoveries, which are accumulating every year; 
being often unable to find a proper veliicle, I have been compelled to avail my- 
self of magazines and ephemerous publications, which seldom meet their eyes. 
"When I have sent memoirs and tracts for publication to the learned societies of 
London, Paris, New-York and Philadelphia, they are only published after many 
years delay, or rejected when they contradict the viens of some favorite meni- 
ber. If I propose publishing my works in Europe, they are refused by t!ie pub- 
lishers, because the author is not one of the celebrated professors of Paris, Lon- 
don or Edinburgh. Meantime 1 have lost by a shipwreckthe labor of many years, 
and the description and figures of one thou.iand new animals and plants. Every 
