280 Dr. Smith' j Obfer-vatkns on the Britljh Species of Bromus. 



other, as. it often happens, a Student may choofe between them ; 

 preferring a defcription of Curtis, Lyons, or Hudfon, to one of 

 Haller or Scopoli, becaufe of the probability of the fpecies thefe laft 

 writers defcribed not agreeing with our Britifh ones, or with thofe 

 of Linnasus. Haller indeed is far from correct in his Linnaean 

 fynonyms, fo that I find it dangerous to quote him without very 

 particular reafons. But if there be fo much uncertainty in com- 

 piled fynonyms and defcriptions, even when we are informed from 

 whence they are derived, what {hall we fay to Mr. Lightfoot's plan 

 of copying from all quarters without any acknowledgment at all ? 

 His book is made up of pafTages from Linnaeus, Haller, Scopoli, 

 Dillenius and Gmelin ; and he is not by any means attentive to the 

 agreement of thofe pafTages with the native plants to which he 

 applies them. If the writer of every Flora would give original 

 defcriptions or characters, from real wild fpecimens, his work muft 

 be valuable ; and on this account Dr. Withering* s third edition 

 becomes a book of firft-Eate authority, no defcriptions being 

 more juft than his, as far as they go. For the fame reafon Mr. 

 Curtis's Flora Lond'menjis, though incomplete, ought to be ranked, 

 independent of its excellent figures, next to Ray's Synopjts in original 

 merit and authority upon Englifh plants* 



With thefe examples before me, to fhun or to imitate, I have 

 long laboured at the Flora Britannlca ; and it is evident that, on fuch 

 a plan as I have propoied to myfelf, it cannot very fpeedily be 

 completed. By Studying original fpecimens in the great collections 

 at the Bjritiih Mufeum and at Oxford, I hope to bring the fynonyms 

 nearer to perfection than they are at prefenr, and have already 

 cleared up many difficulties. Many of my difcoveries are daily 

 given to the world in the Engl'i/h Botany ; and I appeal to their 

 number, not from orientation, but as an apology for not having 



more 



