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y'i P R E F A C E .
clear exposition of the arrangement of the veins or nerves. Tlie importance
of these, in the Genera of this Order, has been long ago insisted on by tlie
learned Brown, not only in his Prodromus Florce Novce Hollandim, but
more particularly in a proof sheet, which I had once the opportunity of seeing,
on the “ Botany o f Java,” which has been printed, if I mistake not,
thirteen years, but which has, from some cause over which the author had no
control, not yet been published.
So completely do the ideas of Ur Presl accord with my own, in regard to
the limits of many Genera, that I should- do him injustice were I not, in
such cases, to quote his characters verbatim ; and indeed, the more attentively
I study his book, and compare his descriptions with the plants themselves,
the more satisfied I am that he has produced a work which will not easily
be surpassed for accuracy of research, and clear and perspicuous arrangement.
At present, however, I am disposed to think he has laid too much stress on
the number and other circumstances connected with the bundles of vessels in
the stipes, which in the Herbarium are difficult of investigation, and that the
venation holds too prominent a place in the generic character:—but this
opinion I may see fit to change in the progress of my undertaking.
G la sg ow , M a y 1, I8S8.
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