I n the preface to my Plantarum leones, pubtifhed in April 1789, 1 declared an intention o f devoting
m y botanical labours chiefly to the publishing figures from dried fpecimens o f fuch plants as have
no where been already figured; and indeed that work is defigned to contain only fuch. The great
number o f new and rare plants however which abound in the Englifh gardens have long demanded
the attention o f a fcientific botanifl to refcue them from oblivion; and I have been the more readily
induced to take a fhare in the general labour b y the perfuafion o f Mr. Sowerby, one o f the beft
botanical draughtfmen this country ever poffefled, who was defirous o f being engaged in fome work
•worthy o f his abilities. T fhould not have joined in the prefent undertaking with any perfon of
whofe fkill and accuracy 1 had been lefs fatisfied.
The intention then o f the prefent publication is to give accurate and elegant figures, with full
fcientific defcriptions, o f fuch plants as have hitherto been imperfeflly or not at all known, and o f
•which no fufficiently good figures exift. The whole will be made from living fpecimens and from
repeated obfervations. The moft rare and beautiful plants only will be admitted into this work,
•and every interefling particular in their hiftory will be added to the fyflematic defcription. In order
to make it as ufeful as poffible, even to thole in whofe education the learned languages are not generally
included, the text is printed in Englifh as well as Latin, and that in a feparate edition, fo that
purchafers are notnecefiarily burthened with both.
In the Engliffrdefcriptions I have preferred a moreloofe tranflation, retaining fome Latin words with
their terminations, as technical terms, to that rigid rendering o f word for word, and that obfolete
language, in which elegance and perfpicuity are too often facrificed. It is defirable that the unlearned
fhould be enticed into a familiarity with fcientific and clafiical language, fo that at length the learned
and unlearned may join as it were b y common confent, and, as they cultivate the fame fcience, ufe
the fame terms.
The prefent publication being defigned to contain plants for the moil part o f a large fize, it will
foon be followed b y a fmaller work, confifting o f fuch as do not require fo ample a page to exhibit
all their neceflary parts.
London, OBober 1, 1790.