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12* any systematic modifications which may be considered as improvements, I alone am responsible for any errors they may contain.

It is hoped, indeed, that these generic characters will in no instance be found to have been copied from other works without collating them in the case of each Hongkong species, as far as our specimens would admit, and modifying them or indicating exceptional points where necessary. In a few instances it will be seen that I have proposed considerable innovations, chiefly in the way of consolidating small genera which appeared to have been established on insufficient grounds. I have been obliged, however, to leave others still in a very unsatisfactory state, where the fixing their limits and characters would have required a general revision of whole Orders, which we can only hope to accomplish for the 'Genera Plantarum' I am preparing in conjunction with Dr. Hooker.

In many instances also our specimens are as yet very imperfect, and much remains to be done before the Flora of this diminutive island can be said to be well known. And this deficiency is not to be ascribed to any want of zeal on the part of the collectors. When we read upon their labels, accompanying specimens of some of the most striking plants, such memoranda as "Only three trees known in the island," "Once seen in a ravine near the top of Mount Victoria," "Picked out of a faggot which a Chinaman was carrying home," etc., we can scarcely hope that the history of such species as are yet only known in the state of bud, or in that of fruit, or in one sex, etc., will be very soon completed from specimens gathered in the island itself. But most probably they may all be found in greater abundance and perfection in the hilly ranges bordering the opposite mainland, a portion of which has now been added to our territory. To these hills, therefore, we would especially call the attention of botanical explorers, to procure materials for the further illustration of the Hongkong Flora.

The specific descriptions, like the generic characters, have been always drawn up from the actual examination of specimens gathered in the island, where they were sufficient for the purpose; or, where these were imperfect, specimens from the nearest station from whence we have the same species, whether continental China, the Philippine Islands, or eastern India, have been made use of to complete the character. In each such case the origin of the specimens described has been stated; and on all occasions where the limits of the species are known to extend beyond the island, the Hongkong specimens have been compared with others taken from different parts of its geographical range. This has