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SOME introductory Explanation of the Rife of the following 
Treatife, the Difficulties which interfered, the Affiftances to be 
acknowledged, the Method, Plan, and Connexion of the whole 
Work, and the undeniable Imperfections in the Execution of it, 
mull here be premifed, and fubmitted 
TO THE 
CANDID READER. 
B EING follicited, about twenty years fince, to make a collection of Cornilli 
foffils, for fome learned gentlemen abroad, whofe names would entitle them 
to a much fuperior correfpondence \ and finding the natural products of this 
County much commended ; being alfo frequently employed afterwards in the fame 
office, I became more and more fond of collecting, till my fpecimens tempted 
me more narrowly to infpeCt and defcribe them : Several incidents relatino- to 
Natural History, in the mean time occurred, and claimed a notice, which 
I could not deny them : My country was little known, and my defire to furvey 
the feveral parts of it increafed, as the deficiencies of what had been publifhed 
before became more apparent, and not being wholly deftitute of thofe who urged, 
me to this undertaking, I became engaged by degrees, and infenfibly ventured 
myfelf fo far in the following work, that I could proceed with more eafe, than 
I could retreat with propriety. 
My fituation however, was none of the moft favourable to fuch an. attempt ; 
my diftance from books and thofe aflemblies of the learned who had turned 
their Studies into the fame chanel, was a difcouraging, and in fome particulars, 
an infuperable difadvantage, but with regard to the natural productions, it enabled 
me to examine them all on the fpot, and though I had not always before me 
what the Literati had written on the fame fubjeCt, I could better understand 
what nature had done. 
Mr. Ray and Mr. E. Lluyd (both moft defervedly eminent in Natural Know- Aids, 
ledge) came into Cornwall in quell; of what was remarkable, and Stayed here 
fome time. The former has diligently taken a lift of our Fifh and Plants ; and 
though Antiquity participated the attention of the latter, yet he made fome 
difcoveries in each department, and thereby concurred to render them lefs diffi- 
cult to thofe, who were to fucceed him in the fame refearches. Dr. Woodward’s 
Dr. Boerhave, Dr. J. Frederick Gronovius, Dr. Linnaeus, and the late Dr. Ifaack Lawfon, then 
at Leyden, 
Method, 
