The Botanist's Companion, Volume II

The Botanist's Companion, Volume II, Or an Introduction to the Knowledge of Practical Botany, and the Uses of Plants. Either Growing Wild in Great Britain, or Cultivated for the Puroses of Agriculture, Medicine, Rural Oeconomy, or the Arts.

Author's preface to the second volume:

In demonstrating the Plants which occur in our annual herborizing excursions, I have found it necessary to put into the hands of my pupils some Manual of Botany; and in so doing I have found all that have yet been published, deficient in one or two essential points, and particularly as relating to the uses to which each plant is adapted; with out which, although the charms of the Flora are in themselves truly delightful, yet the real value of Botanic knowledge is lost.

The study of plants, so far as regards their uses and culture, has engaged my particular attention for the last twenty-five years, during which time I had the honour of conducting a series of experiments on the growth of plants, for the Board of Agriculture, which gave me an opportunity of ascertaining many facts relative to our Grasses, &c. an account of which, I have had some time ready for publication.