Page:Hortus Kewensis, 1st edition, Volume 1.djvu/8

 TO THE

, Sir, a servant rendered happy by Your Majesty's benevolence, to obey the impulse of gratitude, which urges him to lay at Your Majesty's feet, this attempt to make public the present state of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew.

Small as the book appears, the composition of it has cost him a large portion of the leisure allowed by the daily duties of his station, during more than fifteen years: in all that time it has been thought worthy the assistance of men more learned than himself; a circumstance, which flatters him with the hope, that it may not be found utterly unworthy of Your Majesty's inspection.

As throughout his life he has unremittingly attended to the studies of Horticulture and