PREFACE. 
il 
often from the information of others : here every thing is 
from Nature only. The Plants themfelves have furniftied 
their own charadlers, not the accounts. of thofe who had elfe-. 
where feen them. They have been raifed for this purpofe in 
a garden where no manure has ever been admitted ; and where 
there are not fingle Plants, but intire beds of each. They" 
have been therefore raifed in a date of fimple nature ; and, if 
any thing has appeared particular in one or two, it can have 
caufed no error, fince there were others of the kind where- 
with to compare thofe variations. 
I MAY be allowed therefore to hope the rcprefentations are 
to be depended on : and it will appear fome advantage, that all 
the Plants of this extenfive Clafs, are here fhewn together ; that 
there is no occafion to turn to other books about them ; nor 
to lament the want of figures of any of them ; without which 
even the mod accurate defcriptions often convey but very im- 
pcrfedl ideas of the objecd. 
Each figure reprefents fuch a portion of the Plant as con- 
tains all its charadlers : a dowering branch, with a larger leaf 
from the body of the dem, or root : and the fize is that of 
apparent nature : not what the parts would meafurc if laid 
' upon 
