Flora Scotica, or A description of Scottish plants : arranged both according to the artificial and natural methods ; in two parts / by William Jackson Hooker.

  • Hooker, William Jackson, Sir, 1785-1865.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Flora Scotica, or A description of Scottish plants : arranged both according to the artificial and natural methods ; in two parts / by William Jackson Hooker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Part is devoted to the Natural Arrangement3: and here I may claim the merit of being the first who has made such an attempt with the indigenous plants. This section begins with the Crypto- gamia, which in the Linnean system immediately follows the 23d class, or the last included in the first part of the work, and which may thus be said to occupy its right place, whichever method may be followed by the student. In the Cryptogamous or Acotyledonous plants, observations are frequently added to the synonyms and habitats; but in the other two classes which cor- respond with the 23 Linnean classes, treated of in the foregoing part of the Flora, it has been desirable to exclude all remarks and particular stations, and refer for these to the First Part. In all this, mv aim has uniformly been to avoid the inconvenience and the expense of a large book. Could the whole have been comprised in a still smaller compass, it would have been mv wish that it should have been so; but to have acquired brevity at the expense of clearness would have been no benefit to those who may use this work, and would have been an obvious failure in my own object. Glasgow, 10//* April, 1821. a In collecting the characters given of a large proportion of the natural orders; indeed, of all, with the exception of the Acotyledones, it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the able and willing assistance that has been rendered me by my friend J. Lindley, Esq. That part must be considered as a joint production, and we alike claim the merit, or are responsible for the defects, which it may be found to contain. Of any thing original, however, as to matter, little can be attributed to ourselves ; the difficulty has been to select with care from materials which lie scattered in the various productions and memoirs of Linnaeus, Jussieu, Decandolle, Mirbel, Richard, and lastly, though among the very first in point of value, those of our learned country- man, Mr. Brown. But it must be observed, that although the name of some author is in most instances added to the characters of the orders, we never- theless have used our discretion in altering those characters so as to make them suit our purpose. For by generally omitting such distinctions as only apply to extra European genera, we flatter ourselves that the subject has become considerably simplified, without any disadvantage to the stu- dent. In those cases where no name is cited we must be considered as wholly responsible.