PREFACE, 
xi 
when I consider that the small collection communicated 
to me, consisting of about one hundred and fifty speci- 
mens,, contained not above a dozen plants well known to 
me to be natives of North America, the rest being either 
entirely new or but little known, and among them at 
least six distinct and new genera. This may give an 
idea of the discerning eye of their collector, who had 
but little practical knowledge of the Flora of North 
America, as also of the richness of those extensive re- 
gions in new and interesting plants, and other natural 
productions. 
The descriptions of those plants, as far as the speci- 
mens were perfect, I have inserted in the present work 
in their respective places, distinguishing them by the 
words v . s. in Herb. Lewis.” Several of them I have 
had an opportunity of examining in their living state, 
some being cultivated from seeds procured by Mr. Lewis r 
and others since my arrival in England from seeds and 
plants introduced by Mr. Nuttall. 
Here I cannot refrain from drawing the attention of 
future botanists travelling those regions, to two highly 
interesting plants, of which I have only seen imperfect 
specimens. The first is what Mr. Lewis in his journals 
calls u the Osage Apple, 5 * or 66 Arrow wood of the Mis- 
souris . 55 This is a tree, or rather shrub, with leaves re- 
sembling those of a pear-tree, but broader in propor- 
tion ; they are alternate, and have a recurved thorn near 
their base ; the flowers are of separate sexes, and appear 
in axillary, peduncled, globular catkins, which produce 
a depressed globular fruit, in size and colour resembling 
an orange, in interior structure approaching near to the 
genus Morinda, This shrub, on account of its fruit 
