VI

H REPACK.

as Rose's Elements of Botany, and Darwin ’s P hy-tologia , with which no such faults can be found.The former is a compendium of Linnsean learn-ing, the latter a store of ingenious philosophy ;but they were designed for philosophers, and arenot calculated for every reader. Linnaeus and hisscholars have generally written in Latin . Theyaddressed themselves to physicians, to anato-mists, to philosophers, little thinking that theirscience would ever be the amusing pursuit of theyoung, the elegant and the refined, or theywould have treated the subject differently. It ap-pears to me, therefore, that an introductory pub-lication is still desirable in this country, on anoriginal plan, easy, comprehensive, and fit forgeneral use ; and such were the reasons whichfirst prompted me to the undertaking.

When, however, I had proceeded a consider-able way in its execution, I found that sucli awork might not only serve to teach the first out-lines of the science, but that it might prove avehicle for many observations, criticisms, andcommunications, scarcely tobe brought togetheron any other plan ; nor did it appear any ob-jection to the general use of the book, that, be-sides its primary intention, it might be capable