PREFACE.
T h e application of tîie vegetable kingdom to the uses, pleasures, and assistance of
mankind, is so various and universal, that life and existence are dependent upon it.
BeforeCommerce dispersed credulity, and opened the gates of knowledge to man,
from the product of our own isle, fancy prepared the balms and medicines that
malady required, and poor necessity trusted to their ideal powers in after ages
labouring science discovered the activity of mineral preparations, and the more
powerful drugs, the produce of other regions, assumed their just superiority;
the domestic still, the cordial water, and the formulée of the Galenic school,
gradually faded from observation, and silently sunk into oblivion.-----If we consider
Great Britain, and her 1300 species of plants, * how small a number are
retained for medical purposes! how very few are applicable to the arts of life! and
how infinite a number végetate without our knowledge: of any virtues they possess !
contributing in no visible manner to any end to which the limited faculties of man
can apply them. The most important then of our island natives, are those classes
which serve for the maintenance of quadrupeds, and ultimately for that of man,
which were noted for that purpose from the earliest creation, and will continue
thus applicable till the final consummation of all things.
It has long been a desideratum that that part of the Triandrious class denominated
Grasses, might be assembled, and it is presumed that a step is now taken
towards its accomplishment; the endeavour, it is hoped, favours not of arrogance,
nor merits contempt.
In regard to the Plates, the author has only to observe, that the drawings from
which they were taken were by his own hand, from plants of nearly all his own
gathering, in their native stations, and to the best of his opinion judiciously selected;
various soils, various seasons, various situations, all influence in à remarkable manner,
as'the attentive botanist is fully aware of, the vegetable world; hence that these
are just and general representations, the candid consideration of the observer must
alone determine.
Bath, June, 1803.
* If to the 1300 species of regular British plants we add those of the Cryptogamia, with the exclusion of Algae and
Fungi, which are not yet perhaps sufficiently ascertained, we may estimate our island natives at about 1900 species.