XX 
PREFACE. 
In some of the more intricate genera, as Moftatda j 
Vaccinium , Andromeda , Salix , &c. the specific charac- 
ters have been extended to a rather unusual length, 
which maybe objected to by some, but I am persuaded 
will be approved of by most. The beauty of a short 
and perspicuous character is without doubt preferable 
to a long one, which the more it is extended the more 
ambiguous it will become ; but the nature of certain 
genera will absolutely not admit this conciseness, and 
the works of some of the most celebrated authors 
have lately proved that it is inconvenient to be limited 
by a certain number of words in forming the specific 
character. Among many others I only need to mention 
Willdenow’s last volume of the Species Plantarum, par- 
ticularly the genus Aspidium , and Mr. Robert Brown’s 
excellent “Treatise on the Proteaceae,” in the tenth vo- 
lume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society. In 
both these works examples will be found, where the 
length of the specific character equals if not exceeds in 
number of words the longest in the present work. 
It would have been needless to encumber the work 
with a superfluous number of synonyms, which can be 
found in the authors referred to ; but those of a late date, 
or any way illustrative toward the true determination of 
the species, have been carefully collected, as the means I 
was possessed of were particularly favourable to the as-* 
©ertainment of those points, which may be of the high- 
est utility to future publications on the same subject. 
In respect to the figures referred to, care has been 
taken to quote the most correct whenever there was a 
choice» The plates which accompany the work have 
