PREFACE.

The history of this volume is as follows. In the Coloniesand India for Sept. 13th, 1879, Mr. Gr. J. Symons pub-lished a catalogue of works on Applied Botany, havingpreviously contributed a letter to that periodical urging thecompilation of such a catalogue. The same journal for Novem-ber 22nd, 1879, contained an appendix consisting of the formerlist, with large accessions by Mr. P. L. Simmonds. Mr. Symonshaving added a few additional titles to the list, it was offeredto the Index Society for publication, and I undertook to editit. The work served excellently as a supplement to a journal,but required much labour before it could be considered fit forpublication in a permanent form. I began by striking outcolonial floras of purely botanical aspect, they having beenfar more fully dealt with in my Guide to the Literature ofBotany. I also deleted all books devoted to Silk andCochineal, as not being strictly within the limits of the title assettled by the Index Society; and most reluctantly the subjectof the Yine, its culture and products, simply on the groundof its enormous extent. The bibliography of the Yine inall its bearings would require a lifetime for its compilation ;I did not attempt to take up the subject myself: in the Index I