The P R E F A C E. 
A very confiderable part of botany lay untouched, even by this author, 
All that concerned the leffer, commonly called the imperfect plants, was 
to be begun de novo ; in this I have been obliged to form a new method\ 
and to introduce new words as in the mineralogy ; but, as there were 
none before for the fame objects, thefe rnufl be excufed: they have a fuff 
dent plea for this, as they lay down, in a regular and fyftematic method, 
a large portion of the Hifiory of Plants, never difpofed in any degree of 
order before. 
AS in regard to the Plants, fo with the Animals, the lefjer have been 
difregarded . It required a peculiar ftides of experiments to difcover toe 
ckara&ers of that minute part of the infteCt creation, which was too mm 
nute for the unaffifled fight \ and authors, either through unacquaintance 
with the only means by which thefie could be dificovered, the ajfifiance of 
glaffes, or firom mere rikgleEi, have paffed them over in filence. Certainly, 
their want of magnitude does not exclude them from their rank among 
animated beings ; yet this is the only Hifiory of Animals, in which they 
have been honoured with a name . 
1 have been at the pains of viewing all thefie by the mkroficope, and not 
according to the erroneous accounts of thofie fuperficial writers, who have 
treated of fome of them, or of thofe who only pretend to have feen others', 
but, from what appeared on that examination, I have arranged them into 
a regular method, and given them denominations. The reader who is ad¬ 
dicted to cavilling, rnufl not find fault with me for this . I have not 
changed their names, the greatefl part of them had none before . For the 
other parts of this volume, they are finifhed on the fame plan with thofe of 
the fecond: and have jufl as much obligation as they to the writers who 
have gone before . 
IT is with great pleafure that 1 fee a fpirit of this part of know¬ 
ledge raifing itfielf among us. We have the foundation in our hands, 
and there requires little more than application for the fuperflruhlure, 
Mr da Cofta, a perfon of great knowledge in mineralogy, promifes us an 
account of many things in his excellent collection ; I dont know whether 
he does not mean to call it a Hifiory of Fojftls. Mr Baker is about to 
publifih figures of many obje&s feen through microficopes: though 
this colleElion will hardly be without error, yet, dmbtlefis, there will 
be much curiofity in it ; and Captain Armfirong, in a hifiory 
which he has juft publifhed of Minorca, has jhewn an uncommon know¬ 
ledge in thefie things, for one who could have but occafionally fiudied 
them. I Jhould fay more of this Author, had he fiaid lefis of me. The 
Royal Society of London is a name alfio, from which much might be ex- 
pelted. I am fiorry to confeft's, that their labours have, to this time, by 
no means anfwered the expectation of the world, hut they have now 
entered 
