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EXOTIC 
BOTANY. 
INTRODUCTION. 
T H E following figures are all engraved from nature. Mod of the Plants eame 
over dried, as fpecimens ; and they were brought to the date wherein they are re- 
prefented in thefe defigns, by maeeration in warm water : The method ivas this. 
The Plant was laid in a China difh, and water was poured upon it, nearly as mueh as 
the eavity would hold ; another dilh, fomewhat fmallcr, was turn’d down upon this, and 
the Edges were cemented with common Pade, fpread upon brown paper : This was (ct 
upon a pot half full of cold water, and placed over a gentle fire. Thus managed, after a 
little time the lower didi heats ; and the water gradually in it : A few minutes then com- 
plete the bufincfs. The Plant, however rumpled up in drying, expands and takes the na- 
tural form it had when fredi. Even the minuted parts appear didindlly. 
The fpecimen is dedroyed by this operation, but it fiiews itfelf, for the time, in full 
perfeftion : I could have widied to fave fome of thefe, but they were facrificed to the 
work ; and I hope their remembrance will live in the Defigns. 
This is the hidory of the Asiatic Plants : to thefe I have added fome few others, that 
ferved bed to illudrate the Sexual Sydem; and to fhew the courfe of nature in condrudt- 
ing DOUBiE Flowers. Deferiptions at length are not needed ; for the figures iTiew all 
the parts didindtly : only what thefe cannot exprefs, as the height of the entire Plant, the 
Organs concealed within the Flowers, and the like, are added; with fuch other obfervations 
as appeared mod curious or ufeful. 
The place whence I received each is fet down : and this gives a general direction as to 
the degree of expofure the Plant will bear. I have not named that more particularly, be- 
caufe it is not yet known. Experience will be the bed Guide. There are many Shrubs 
which we now nurfe in grccn-houfes, that would very well bear the open borders. 
The Seeds of thefe Plants came over with the fpecimens ; and they were fent to 
four remote parts of the kingdom, where I have correfpondence, with thofe who h.we 
doves, and have been mod fuccefsbil in raifing tender Species : fome mud be expected 
to fiiil; and fome lye long in the earth ; but the fiid feafon raifed fcveral of them; 
and in the fucceeding years all, excepting a very few, have appeared. 
In this edition the Trivial name of the Plant is every where put at the top of the page, 
and the Specific charafler at bottom ; both from the l;.d edition of the Sydema Natura- ; 
'The author tho’ himfelf has now propofed to the w'orld a different Sydem, yet as out ol re- 
fpedl to the great and excellent inventor of the Sexual method, he originally arranged this 
fet ofPlanis according to that form ; and for the pleafurc of thofe who widi to underdand 
that method, lias continued it here, and given a view of it in I lower, where it is very 
conlpicuous. 
