RECENT EECOEDS OF EAEE PLANTS. 



.^A 



UPPLEMENTARY to 



the excellent remarks 

 by Mr. Edwin Lees 

 (p. 77, last vol.) anent 

 alterations iu, or un- 

 certainty ofj long-ago 

 recorded localities 

 for rare plants, and apropos 

 of Mr. J. B. Blow's sugges- 

 tion (p. 115) for the formation 

 of a botanical Locality-record 

 Club, with whicli the former 

 paper has a not remote con- 

 nection, a little gossip may 

 not, perhaps, be out of place. 

 I am afraid it would be 

 somewhat difScult to secure 

 sufficient trustworthy and 

 valuable co-operation, over so 

 great an area as Britain, to 

 render Mr. Blow's plan suc- 

 cessful. Most of the older 

 and more experienced bota- 

 nists who formed the van of the workers when 

 science was not so popular as now, and who 

 are the original recorders of a great part [of 

 the localities, copied, one from the other, into our 

 manuals, have become too infirm, or too occu- 

 pied with weightier matters, to be able to go 

 to the not small trouble of visiting and verifying 

 anew stations they explored thoroughly in by- 

 gone years; and of the younger generation, not 

 a few are as yet mere " collectors," who, however 

 enthusiastic they may be, are scarcely the ones 

 whose search of or report upon any wide locality 

 could be tlioroughly trusted, or whose statements 

 and judgments accepted without question. Never- 

 theless, I should be glad to see such a plan as Mr, 

 Blow suggests fairly tested, and willing to take 

 upon myself the task of aiding it so far as I could — 

 say, by undertaking to visit and verify as speedily 

 as possible all stations for rare plants within this 

 county of Durham, as I have already tried to do for 

 the West Eiding of Yorkshire, having suffered re- 

 No. 97. 



peatedly myself both in loss of time and in pocket 

 from the misleading suggestions of local floras, 

 whose authors not unfrequently, though good 

 general botanists, have but little practical field 

 knowledge, and are as uafit, from the want of it, to 

 sift of error the statements of others, as they are 

 unable at sight to pronounce with any accuracy 

 upon a species of Rose, of Hawkweed, or of 

 Willow ! 



Suppose, however, the club formed, and a goodly 

 number of willing observers engaged to visit and 

 report upon noteworthy localities, whilst seeking 

 for new ones, their records would be worse than 

 useless if not made more reliable than the existing 

 Floras, and if rendered so, but a small advance 

 would even then be made upon the work which, 

 though indirectly, and limitedly, from want of num- 

 bers, is none the less surely being done by the 

 Botanical Exchange Club, under whose skilled 

 supervision, year by year, new plants or species from 

 new localities, or old ones, are distributed and com- 

 mented upon. 



To render the proposed record trustworthy, how- 

 ever, a specimen of the plant found should accom- 

 pany every notice . of its new or verified locality : 

 and many who would be glad to contribute state- 

 ments would be unwiUing to do this. The plants 

 sent would still require to be examined and attested 

 by reliable authorities, as correct not only in name, 

 but also (spot where found and character of species 

 considered) referred to their proper classes of 

 citizenship. This may seem not very difficult, yet 

 existing Ploras, &c., show that few except the 

 highest botanical authorities, or those who have 

 special district knowledge, are capable of pro- 

 nouncing on such points without much liability to 

 error ; and of these, taking into consideration the 

 vast amount of work the task would entail upon 

 them, how many would come forward willing to fill 

 a place upon such a bench of botanical censors ? 

 Without such censors and such authentication the 

 records would not be worth a great deal. Unfit- 

 ness of Flora-authors for their task, or the more 

 culpable want of care in this matter of verification , 



