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INTRODUCTION.

is not the object of the present work to teach the science of Botany, or even to furnish a treatise upon the natural history and classification of the flowering plants of the British Islands. The first, like all other branches of natural knowledge, is an abstruse and complicated study, to which there is no 'royal road,' and the pursuit of which, however pleasing, involves the diligent perusal of many volumes, with close and unremitting attention to that Great One whose pages lie ever open before us: the last, though a less comprehensive subject, would demand far more space for its elucidation than can be accorded to it here. Intended merely as a volume of reference for the field-botanist, the country resident or summer rambler, when works of more pretension are not at hand, our book can comprise little more descriptive matter than is absolutely necessary, with the assistance of the plates, to identify each plant. Those who are desirous of acquiring an intimate knowledge of the structure and affinities of the vegetable kingdom we must refer to the compendious treatises of Lindley, Balfour and others; while the student of the British Flora will find detailed descriptions of each species, and most of the information that has been accumulated on the subject, in the 'English Botany' and other