PREFACE. 
This Catalogue has been compiled for the purpose of facilita- 
ting exchanges of plants, seeds, &c. between this and other kin- 
dred establishments, as while affording our numerous contributors 
some data to go on when making out their lists of desiderata, it 
will serve to show w r hat plants at present exist in our collection, 
and thus prevent the loss of time and money which must other- 
wise inevitably occur. 
It is contemplated to publish a Supplement to each Annual 
Report on ibe Gardens, containing the names of the plants intro- 
duced during the year. 
A Supplement to my Annual Report for 1875 contained the 
names of all the plants then in the Gardens, so far as they were 
known to me, which amounted to 488 species. 
This number in three years has been nearly quadrupled and 
now amounts to 1,802. 
The families in which the most notable increase has taken 
place are : — the Orchideie, from 84 to 280 species ; Palms, from 44 
to 113 ; and Ferns and Lycopods from 31 to 170 species, while only 
17 species included in the old list have been lost. 
The oM list was arranged alphabetically, which made it easy 
reference, and perhaps the number of species in the present 
"one is even row scarcely large enough to warrant my changing 
the arrangement, but it will render the compilation of future 
Catalogues much easier, and it brings together all the plants that 
• are nearest related to each other, anti as it is proposed to arrange 
the shrubby plants themselves in something like the same order, 
the Catalogue will, in a great measure, answer the purpose of a 
guide to residents or visitors who are desirous of finding a parti- 
cular plant, while an Index of the genera, as well as one con- 
taining a good many English and Malay names, have been added 
to enable non-botanists to find a particular plant. 
