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XVII. Observations respecting several British Species of Hieracium. 

 By James Edward Smkfi, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S. 



Read January 19, and February 2, 1808. 



If it be incumbent on the more experienced cultivators of Na- 

 tural History to correct the errors of their predecessors or con- 

 temporaries, when they can do it with certainty ; it is more espe- 

 cially the duty of every man to correct his own, whenever they 

 become manifest to him, either by his own deliberate subse- 

 quent inquiries, or the remarks of other persons. Nor is he 

 exempted from this duty, unless such remarks originate in sinister 

 motives, and are in themselves manifestly false or totally con- 

 temptible. 



Several species of Hieracium generally presumed to be natives * 

 of Britain are involved in great doubt, and there are others con- 

 cerning which the best English botanists are not sufficiently in- 

 formed to give them as yet a place in their Floras. Of the for- 

 mer I shall now principally speak, taking them in their proper 

 order. 



The two first which present themselves in this light are 



Hieracium dubium and Auricula. 



Both these are allowed a place in the Flora Britannica on the 

 authority of Hudson alone, for I never heard of any other per- 

 son who had gathered them in Britain, nor of any who had even 

 seen a native specimen of either. I have examined the neigh- 



vol. ix. 5 g bourhood 



