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The Author's Preface.
acknowledged; but my estimate of their importance for its advance would differ materially at the present moment from that contained in my History of Botany. At the same time I rejoice in being able to say that I may sometimes have overrated the merits of distinguished men, but have never knowingly underestimated them.
Dr. J. von SACHS
Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society.
Würzburg, March 24, 1889.
NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
No History of Botany in English has ever been published, and it is to supply in some measure this want, long felt by English-speaking students, that this translation of Professor Sachs' masterly sketch has been prepared.
