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Handbook Of The British Flora: A Description Of The Flowering Plants And Ferns Indigenous To, Or Naturalized In, The British Isles - For The Use Of Beginners And Amateurs
Handbook Of The British Flora A Description Of The Flowering Plants And Ferns Indigenous To Or Naturalized In The British Isles For The Use Of Beginners And Amateurs Author:George Bentham HANDBOOK OF THE BRITISH FLORA THE FLOWERIKG PLANTS AND FERNS INDIGESOUS TO, OR PIATURALISED IN, t be Britieb 3sIe9. FOR THE USE OF BEGINNERS AND AMATEURS - PREFACE - WHEN revising the fourth edition of my late friends Handbook of the British Flora, I abstained from making other additions or alterations than appeared to me to be absolutely necess... more »ary, and consistent with the object of the work, which is, as stated in the title-page, c6for the use of beginners and 7mateurs. In the Preface to the , first, 1858, but in no sub- equent edition, Mr. Bentham explained his motives for presenting his work to the public, and the method he followed in preparing it and inasmuch as he therein gives his reasons for adopting a different treatment of British plants from what obtains in other works devoted to our native Flora, it appears to me to be expedient, now that the editorship has passed into other hands, to repeat what he there says in his own wcrds - In adding to the number of British Ploras already before the public, it is not attempted to enter into competition with either of the standard scientific works whose merits have been tested through several successive editions. The Authors object has been rather to supply a deficiency which he believes has been much felt. He has been frequently applied to, to recommend a work which should enable persons having no previous knowledge of Botany to name the wild flowers they might gather in their country rambles. He has always been much embarrassed how to answer this inquiry. The book he had himsell used under similar circumstances in a foreign country, the more Fran ai oef De Candolle, is inapplicable o Britain, and has long been out of print even, io the country for which it was written. Our standard Florrrs, l whatever their botanical merit, require too much previous scientific knowledge for a beginner or mere amateur to understand without sssistance the characters by which the plants are distinguished from each other. In the endeavour to compile a more practical guide to the botanical riches of our islands, the Author has recalled to his mind the process hy vhich he was enabled, nearly torty pars aince, without any previous acquaintance with the subject, to determine the mild plants he gathered in the neighbourhood of hgoularne and of Montauban, the difliculties he had to surmount, and tlie numerous mistakes he was led intd...« less