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Xii
PREFACE.
the help of figures, he will require either the Historia
Muscorum of Dillenius, the Hydrophyta Danica of Lyng-
bye, the System der Pilze und Schwamm of Esenbeck, or
Sowerby's English Fuugi, according to his peculiar views.
With the view of assisting those students who have been
accustomed to use the Linnaean mode of investigating plants,
there is prefixed to the second volume, which contains the
perfect, or phenogamous, plants, an analytical guide to the
families, according to the number of the sexual organs.
It remains then only to say a few words respecting the
index. In general, the Latin generic names only have
been quoted, but when a genus contains a great number of
species, as agaricus, lichen, conferva, rosa, jmicus, and some
others, the trivial names are referred to, or the second word
of the specific difference, if the plant had no name given to
it by the old botanists. In a few cases, when the second
word was an adjective, agreeing not with the genei'ic name,
but with a following substantive, this adjective is omitted,
and the governing substantive inserted, as bryum perangustis
crebrioribus foliis, &c. of Dillenius in Raii Synopsis, is
referred to in the index under Bryum foliis.
As to English names, a considerable number of new ones
have, for the sake of system, been given to the genera of
plants; in forming the majority of which, the form and
fashion of our ancient names have been as closely adhered
to as was possible ; but, in some instances, Anglicized Latin
names are used : these, however, ought to be regarded as
only temporary. In regard to the manner in which compound
English names are inserted in an index, a considerable
diffei'ence is observable in authors. Some few insert them
as they are spoken, as plough mans' spike nard under P,
evening prim rose under E. Other authors seem to consider
spike nard and prim rose as generic names, and place them
under S and P. Some carelessly insert them without any-
regular rule, so that a person is frequently obliged to search
for all the words of which a name is composed before he
finds the reference. To avoid ihis, a general rule has been