THE history of this volume is as follows. In the Colonies and India for Sept. 13th, 1879, Mr. G. J. Symons published a catalogue of works on Applied Botany, having previously contributed a letter to that periodical urging the compilation of such a catalogue. The same journal for November 22nd, 1879, contained an appendix consisting of the former list, with large accessions by Mr. P. L. Simmonds. Mr. Symons having added a few additional titles to the list, it was offered to the Index Society for publication, and I undertook to edit it. The work served excellently as a supplement to a journal, but required much labour before it could be considered fit for publication in a permanent form. I began by striking out colonial floras of purely botanical aspect, they having been. far more fully dealt with in my Guide to the Literature of Botany. I also deleted all books devoted to Silk and Cochineal, as not being strictly within the limits of the title as settled by the Index Society; and most reluctantly the subject of the Vine, its culture and products, simply on the ground of its enormous extent. The bibliography of the Vine in all its bearings would require a lifetime for its compilation; I did not attempt to take up the subject myself: in the Index I have made some references to works which will help inquirers on their way, but the nineteen treatises which were cited in the original list were many of them only of gardening interest. I have excluded books and papers of simply horticultural, therapeutic, chemical, commercial, or manufacturing interests, unless they contained a sufficient account of the raw product, its cultivation, or whence obtained, to justify their citation. Mr. Symons supplied me with about sixty cuttings from catalogues not incorporated with his lists. I checked these where possible, against the volumes themselves either at the British Museum, Linnean Society, Kew Museum, or elsewhere; if I could not find any trustworthy record, I rejected them unhesitatingly. I was compelled to examine every title without exception, for too great trust had apparently been placed on the catalogues whence they were obtained for me to reprint them. Many of the original entries were too imperfect to be retained; those which I could not supplement or correct were mostly struck out; a few, however, are still left in, but marked with an asterisk, to signify that I am in no wise responsible for their accuracy. I cannot here refrain from expressing my great regret that Mr. Simmonds should have contented himself with giving so many maimed entries from pamphlets in his own possession under the heading 'Anonymous' publications; a trifling amount of additional trouble would have made them quotable or recognizable. In addition to examining the titles furnished me, I have added all I could conveniently within the time; but a complete bibliography of Economic Botany would need the labour of years. I have gone through the Library attached to the |