e press, according to the rule of Horace, hoping to have rendered
it more worthy the acceptance of the public,--but finds at length, that
he is less able, from disuse, to correct the poetry; and, from want of
leizure, to amplify the annotations.

In this second edition, the plants Amaryllis, Orchis, and Cannabis are
inserted with two additional prints of flowers; some alterations are made
in Gloriosa, and Tulipa; and the description of the Salt-mines in Poland
is removed to the first poem on the Economy of Vegetation.

PREFACE.

Linneus has divided the vegetable world into 24 Classes; these Classes
into about 120 Orders; these Orders contain about 2000 Families, or
Genera; and these Families about 20,000 Species; besides the innumerable
Varieties, which the accidents of climate or cultivation have added to
these Species.

The Classes are distinguished from each other in this ingenious system,
by the number, situation, adhesion, or reciprocal proportion of the males
in each flower. The Orders, in many of these Classes, are distinguished
by the number, or other circumstances of the females. The Families, or
Genera, are characterized by the analogy of all the parts of the flower
or fructification. The Species are distinguished by the foliage of the
plant; and the Varieties by any accidental circumstance of colour, taste,
or odour; the seeds of these do not always produce plants similar to the
parent; as in our numerous fruit-trees and garden flowers; which are
propagated by grafts or layers.

The first eleven Classes include the plants, in whose flowers both the
sexes reside; and in which the Males or Stamens are neither united, nor
unequal in height when at maturity; and are therefore distinguished from
each other simply by the number of males in each flower, as is seen in
the annexed PLATE, copied from the Dictionaire Botanique of M. BULLIARD,
in which the numbers of each division refer to the Botanic Classes.

CLASS I. ONE MALE, _Monandria_; includes the plants which possess but One
Stamen in each flower.

II. TWO MALES, _Diandria_. Two Stamens.

III. THREE MALES, _Triandria_. Three Stamens.

IV. FOUR MALES, _Tetrandria_. Four Stamens.

V. FIVE MALES, _Pentandria_. Five Stamens.

VI. SIX MALES, _Hexandria_. Six Stamens.

VII. SEVEN MALES, _Heptandria_. Seven Stamens.

VIII. EIGHT MALES, _Octandria_. Eight Stamens.

IX. NINE MALES, _Enneandria_. Nine Stamens.

X. TEN MALES, _Decandria_. Ten Stamen