84 Indigenousness and Distinctness 



Art. V. Observations concerning the Indigenousness and Distinct- 

 ness of certain Species of Plants included in the British Floras. 

 By the Rev. J. S. Henslow, M.A., Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Cambridge. 



The present demands of the botanist are not to be satisfied 

 by receiving a mere description or enumeration of the species 

 to be found "wild" in any country, but he expects also that 

 some account will be given of their mode of distribution, and 

 of various other circumstances of interest in elucidating the 

 general history of the vegetable kingdom. The earlier 

 botanists were often too hasty in admitting certain species 

 into local floras, upon very unsatisfactory grounds, and later 

 writers have not always exercised sufficient discrimination in 

 rejecting them, or, at least, in accurately distinguishing be- 

 tween such as have been introduced by the agency of man, 

 though now strictly naturalised, and such as are unquestion- 

 ably indigenous. Until of late years, many of the authors of 

 our local floras seem to have been inspired with a desire of 

 swelling their catalogues, rather than of examining attentively 

 into the circumstances which may probably, or possibly, have 

 brought certain species within the limits of their observation. 

 We do, indeed, in many cases, find an (*) attached to some 

 plants, which were considered as doubtful natives in the dis- 

 trict under examination ; but when some of these have been 

 gathered in several distant parts of the country, the original 

 suspicion of their exotic origin is likely to wear off; and if 

 any collector, less cautious than others, should be decided in 

 pronouncing any of them as " truly wild," the chances are 

 that their claim to rank as " indigenous " species will be 

 also admitted. Now, I beg leave to observe, that there is 

 a wide difference between allowing a plant admission into our 

 flora as a " wild" and as an " indigenous" species : and, 

 we may ever hope to arrive at a knowledge of the laws which 

 regulate the geographical distribution of species, it is of the 

 highest importance, that all writers of local floras should be 

 very particular in mentioning the exact circumstances under 

 which every species in their lists may have been observed to 

 grow. Provided this rule be attended to, there can be no 

 objection to their admitting many more species as " wild 

 flowers " than they do at present ; and to these they might 

 append an account of such trees and shrubs as thrive or 

 fail in plantations, and of such herbaceous plants as succeed 

 or not in agriculture. But what I am anxious to impress 

 upon British botanists is, the propriety of our acting upon 

 some common principle, in our endeavours to obtain a correct 



