Book Description

Excerpt from A Handbook to the Flora of Natal In the year 1888 there was issued from the Colonial Herbarium' which was then in its infancy, a small pamphlet entitled An Analytical Key to the Natural Orders and Genera of Natal Indigenous Plants; this work which it must be admitted was very defective, was, however, found useful, but is now quite out of date. In 1894 there was issued from the same Institution a Preliminary Catalogue of Indigenous Natal Plants which contained the names of the plants only, with an indication of the altitudes above the sea level at which they had been observed, but without any other information about them; the present work is an attempt to combine the two previous attempts with such additions and corrections as longer experience and fuller information from outside sources has shown to be necessary. The Preliminary Catalogue included 131, (by mistake 129) Orders, 828 genera, 2216 species and 391 varieties or unnamed species. Since the publication of that List numerous names have been added, partly by the collection of specimens which included species not previously known to us to be natives of Natal, but chie y by the continuation of the Flora Capensis, of which work, one complete Volume and six Parts of other volumes have been issued, in all of which are enumerated species not known to us, and some not included in our collection. The present List includes 133 Orders, 907 genera, 3447 species and 83 varieties, or plants not known to us to be specifically named. A number of the names have also been obtained from foreign publications which have come into our possession by exchange or otherwise, and it is thought that the list is now fairly complete, but any additional names which may come to our notice will appear in the Annual Reports of the Director of the Botanic Gardens and Herbarium. The Keys to Orders and genera have been completely revised, and it is hoped that they may be found to be useful, while the Key of the large Order Gramineae is abridged from that given in the Flora Capensis by omitting all genera and species which are not known to be indigenous or introduced into Natal. It has been found impracticable at present to write keys to the Species; a large number of them are not in our collection, and of many of them we have not even a description, but any specimens sent to us will be examined and the names in most, if not in all cases will be supplied printed directions for preparing and sending specimens will be sent on application, together with printed direct-ion labels which will pass them free by post or rail. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."