An History of Fungusses, growing about Halifax (Vols 1-2)

EARL OF GAINSBOROUGH.

My Lord,

SCIENCE will flourish under the patronage of virtue, and men of every class will always approve and pursue those studies which are distinguished with the regard and approbation of their superiors.

Not to enter into a detail of the many excellent qualities with which your lordship’s name is distinguished, I have an assured right to address you as a generous promoter of a science that is both the most rational and most pleasing, as well as the most essential to the life of man—I mean that of Botany.

But as no science can be perfectly and thoroughly understood until a knowledge of its constituent objects is attained, therefore every proper attempt to discriminate and identify its species must be useful in a greater or lesser degree, in proportion to its success.

English Botany has received many and great improvements in the last and present ages, and yet the most extensive