PREFACE.
THIS work was undertaken partly to gratify the taste and wishes of some friends who had an opportunity of examining the original drawings and who, thinking it would be a pity to throw away so much labour and skill of the painter by publishing them as uncoloured outlines, urged the propriety of at least publishing a few coloured sets, in case any of the purchasers of the Icones should wish to colour their copies. The force of their arguments backed per- haps by the promptings of an anticipated ready sale for the work, induced me so far to depart from my original plan as to have 100 extra copies struck off and coloured: the great expense of colouring preventing my incurring the cost of a larger impression.
Having gone so far it then became necessary to endeavour to add to their usefulness and interest by combining, in as popular a form as I could, some ac- count of the Botanical families to which they belong and their connection with Alpine vegetation generally.
This I soon found a more difficult task to execute than I anticipated and, I greatly fear, the descriptive matter has become more scientific than was consis- tent with my first intentions or than is quite suitable to the tastes and previous information of many of my readers. I do not know that this need be a subject for regret, as possibly the perusal of the following pages may prove the means of inclining some persons to desire a deeper knowledge of the mysteries of the vegetable organization and economy than they supply, and induce them to have recourse to some of the more elementary works on Botany, written expressly for the elucidation of such matters.
Should such prove the case, I can, as the result of a good deal of experience, promise them a most enduring "feast of reason and flow of soul" of the purest and, in the right direction, most elevating kind! For who can study the won- derful and mysterious operations of life and endless adaptations of organization for the preservation, not merely of the individual, but of the species without having his soul elevated and purified, by being led through creation, to the con- templation of the wisdom and attributes of the Almighty Creator of all things animate and inanimate.
Grand and sublime as are the objects brought within the comprehension of
