TO 
• 15 ii- 
V. 1 
J.D.3. 
JOHN AMORY LOWELL, ESQ., 
MEMBER OE THE CORPORATION OE HARVARD COLLEGE, 
AND TRUSTEE OE THE LOWELL INSTITUTE IN BOSTON, NORTH AMERICA, 
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BY HIS GRATEFUL FRIEND, 
THE ATTTHOB. 
My dear Lowell, 
My original design in this Work was limited to the illustration of the Carices of North America, which 
I had studied for several years under the advantage of frequent communication with my friend Mr. Carey, 
who had so ably described and grouped them in Dr. Gray’s ‘ Manual of the Botany of the Northern States,’ 
and the lithographed impressions were made in the prosecution of that design. The extensive and beautiful 
collection of 'specimens subsequently brought by Dr. Hooker from the East Indies, which were liberally 
placed in my hands by that eminent man, impelled me to extend my plan, and I have endeavoured to 
illustrate the Genus at large. 
The figures, with few exceptions, are by M, Maubert, of Paris, drawn and engraved under the guidance 
and inspection of M. Spach: and whatever merit the work may have, it is due chiefly to them. 
In M. Spach I have not only found the talent and learning of the acute and practised observer of nature, 
but the warm interest of the friend; and I owe to him not only that kind sympathy in my labours which 
has lightened and cheered them, but an amount of knowledge which I could not have acquired elsewhere. I 
was introduced to him by the late excellent M. Jussieu; and among the many uncovenanted blessings which 
an early love of plants has bestowed upon me, I look upon the friendship of M. Spach, so cordial and disin¬ 
terested, as among the most precious. 
To my honoured and much-loved friend Sir W. J. Hooker I owe all those facilities which his noble 
disposition so habitually places before all who consult his unrivalled Herbarium; and to Dr. Hooker an 
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