Many who wiili to be informed of the indigenous plants
ol our country have neither leifure nor inclination to purfue
the fcicnce of Botany in its more extenfive track, to pur-
chafe and perufe the numerous volumes, and to acquire an
underftanding of the more numerous terms now neceifary to
be lead and underftood, much lefs to undergo the expence
and bodily fatigue which muft be fuftained before we
acquire an original, perfonal knowledge of the objeas in view,
without which we never arrive at the fummit of the arduous
and pleafing purfuit.
I o make the little that I have written as plain as poftible
to the apprehenfion of every one, I have avoided as much as
I could, the Life of the more difficult botanic terms.
In defciibing the ferns, inftead of the latin terms,
pinncE, pinnulæ, &c. I make ufe of the more familiar ones, JiiJl
leaves, fécond leaves, third leaves, and lobes ; and, to render my
meaning ftill plainer, I have illuftrated it with figures, fee
Table i , where
Fig. I is a firft leaf complete, aaaaa the rib.
Fig. 2 a fécond leaf cut off at b.
Fig. 3 a third leaf cut off at c.
Fig. 4 the lobes.
The fruRifications, which arc generally placed on the back
of the lobes, I have cedltd feed-veffels, as the moft plain and
cxpreffive