P R E F A C E .
H A V I N G undertaken the prefent Work, I
feel great fatisfaftion in the encouragement it
receives from the public, which I (hall endeavour
to continue to deferve.
The Twelfth Number contains the promifed
Index, in which are included fome fynonyms
from different authors, many of them not quoted
in the defcriptions to the figures; nor could I,
with confidence, have cited all of them at the
time thofe defcriptions were written, as I daily
acquire a better knowledge of the fpecies of
Fungi; fo that I flatter myfelf with being able in
the end more perfeflly to diftinguifh them than
could at firfl; have been expeSled. In this.
Nature feems ready to lend her afTiftance ; that
very fimplicity of ftrufture which in many cafes
appears to have led authors into confufion,
being, one would think, more likely to make
this tribe of plants eafily underftood. Some of
them are exaftly a year in their progrefs to maturity
; yet their changes in the courfe of that
progrefs are very trifling, compared with thofe
we fee in (what are termed) perfeft plants: fuch
flight changes however have given rife to many
fuppofed fpecies. Much more frequently therefore
have varieties been defcribed as fuch, fo that