VICAR OF OAKLEY RAYNES IN BEDFORDSHIRE,
AND LATE FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene

"The dark unfathom'd caves of Ocean bear :

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
"And waste it's sweetness on the desart Air."

Gray's Elegy.

Bedford:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY W. SMITH;

MAY BE HAD OF THE BOOKSELLERS IN OXFORD

& CAMBRIDGE, AND OF G. G. & J. ROBINSONS, LONDON.

I 798.

310 Dultz-9N31

A 1263f

Enter'd at Stationers' Hall.

Epistle Dedicatory.

To the Queen.

MADAM,

THE condescension manifested

by YOUR MAJESTY in permitting your name to adorn and sanction the pages of the following Work, cannot but inspire some degree of confidence in the heart of the Author, conscious as he is of the inadequate value of the offer

ing.

To the august Patroness of the "HORTUS KEWENS IS.

iv EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

whose scientific researches have justly obtained for her the character of the first female Botanist in the wide circle of the British Dominions, a character still farther embellished by the display of every domestic and relative Virtue, this Volume, chiefly designed for the amusement and instruction of that sex, which boasts YOUR MAJESTY as it's most distinguished Ornament, is humbly dedicated by

MADAM, Your MAJESTY's

Most devoted,.

Most dutiful

And obedient Servant,

Charles Abbot.

BEDFORD, Nov. 20th. 1798.