Edwards's Botanical Register/Appendix to the first twenty-three volumes

by John Lindley

APPENDIX
TO THE FIRST TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES
OF
EDWARDS'S
BOTANICAL REGISTER:
CONSISTING OF A COMPLETE
ALPHABETICAL AND SYSTEMATICAL INDEX
OF NAMES, SYNONYMES, AND MATTER,
ADJUSTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF SYSTEMATICAL BOTANY;
TOGETHER WITH
A SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION
OF THE
SWAN RIVER COLONY
WITH NINE COLOURED PLATES,
CONTAINING EIGHTEEN COLOURED FIGURES OF PLANTS,
AND WITH FOUR WOOD-CUTS.
————◆————
By JOHN LINDLEY, Ph. D. F.R.S. and L.S.
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON,
AND THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN,
VICE-SECRETARY OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,
&c. &c. &c.

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LONDON:
JAMES RIDGEWAY, PICCADILLY

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M.DCCC.XXXIX.

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PREFACE.

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Much of the value of all works depends upon their having a good index; if this is true as a general rule, it is much more so with regard to books of great extent, involving multitudes of independent facts, and especially in the case of such a publication as the Botanical Register, of which twenty-three volumes have appeared without any classified catalogue of their contents. It is true, that alphabetical lists of the plants figured in those volumes have been already published, but one list stopped with the 13th volume, and the other applies only to the 10 succeeding ones; they are moreover merely alphabetical, while a systematical index is quite as necessary, and they contain no references to the numerous synonymes ascertained during the progress of the publication. These considerations have led the editor to undertake the laborious task of preparing a new and complete index, both classified and alphabetical, of the entire work, including not merely the names of the plants actually figured, together with their synonymes, but references to all the genera and species described only in the notes, and to such systematical and physiological observations as are to be found scattered through the pages. In doing this, the opportunity has been taken of revising the whole of the nomenclature, and of introducing such changes and corrections as the rapid progress of Systematical Botany has rendered necessary. The systematical index has thus become a silent commentary upon the whole 23 volumes, and is an indispensable adjunct to the work itself; for it will serve to shew the unlearned how far innovations in nomenclature are fit to be adopted, and which of the alterations that have from time to time been actually admitted into the work, appear, upon deliberate consideration, to deserve perpetuation. The number of errors requiring correction is not considerable, but it will be found, by a reference to the index, that they have been made unsparingly, and without the least regard to personal considerations.

It has appeared to the Editor desirable to take advantage of this opportunity, for publishing at once a detailed account of the vegetation of one of the most interesting of the British Colonial possessions, from which multitudes of seeds are now continually arriving, and of which it is absolutely necessary for the lover of gardens to have some knowledge, if he would avoid the vexation of buying plants of no value under high sounding and imposing names. It is probable that for some years to come, few species deserving cultivation, will be received from Swan River, beyond such as are noticed in this Appendix, which will therefore, it is hoped, form a useful guide to purchasers in this country, and enable those who reside in the colony, or who have friends there, to judge on the one hand what to send home, and on the other, what to ask their correspondents to collect.

The utility of such a work to those who wish to become acquainted with the Botany of the Swan River Colony, for colonial or mercantile purposes, does not require to be insisted on.

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A sketch of the vegetation of the Swan River Colony
A systematical index to the first twenty-three volumes of The Botanical Register
An alphabetical index to the first twenty-three volumes of The Botanical Register
Plates