FLORA OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 81 



lutely required to fill up the blanks in the descriptions. The author's 



design in undertaking it is thus described in the editorial preface : — 



" Dr. Bromfield became resident at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, in the year 

 1830, and shortly afterwards conceived the idea of preparing a Flora of the 

 Island. He was not content to follow the usual practice in the making of local 

 Floras and Faunas, and to be satisfied by merely presenting a tolerably full list ; 

 but he determined that the investigation should be very complete, and that every 

 species should receive an original description. Nor was he satisfied with a mere 

 cursory research in the framing of these descriptions, or with copying any cha- 

 racter from other authors unverified by his own examinations. He was also 

 equally careful to avoid describing general characters from individuals or varie- 

 ties, and endeavoured with immense and most persevering care to select such 

 points as are really the permanent and essential characters of genera and species. 

 To ensure this result he was in the habit of obtaining a very great number of 

 specimens of each species, collected from various localities; and, whenever 



{>racticable, he endeavoured to compare Isle of Wight specimens with those col- 

 ected at a distance. Having thus secured sufficient material for investigation, 

 his next aim was to consult every author within his reach for all the characters 

 which different observers had noticed. For this part of his plans he had collected 

 a very ample botanical library, especially of foreign authors. The characters, 

 however, observed by others were, for his own descriptions, merely suggestive, 

 none being recorded but such as, after careful examination, he himself found to 

 exist in nature. The results of these careful investigations were the most accu- 

 rate and elaborate descriptions that can be well imagined ; but such were the 

 time and labour bestowed on each species — as much as many authors would give 

 to a genus or family — that this circumstance very materially retarded the pro- 

 gress of the work." 



It is a thousand pities that a design so well devised and so ably com- 

 menced should have been left incomplete. The usual fault of the writers 

 of local floras is, that their attention is so concentrated on the plants of 

 their own little district that they neglect the examination of kindred types 

 from distant localities, and so they are frequently induced to multiply false 

 species, by giving specific value to characters that depend on modifications 

 of soil or of climate. Dr. Bromfield took special pains to avoid this error 

 Indeed, in his many journeys, for he travelled extensively in America and 

 Europe (and at length ended his days in Syria), he must have seen the 

 same species putting on many forms, according to the locality in which it 

 grew ; and would thus be prepared for that careful enquiry into the value 

 of specific differences which his writings display. The detailed descrip- 

 tions of species, so far as they were finished, are models of careful descrip- 

 tion, and will be found well worth the study of the descriptive botanist. 

 The localities recorded under each species are, as might be expected, very 

 full; a topographical index to all the "villages, farms, seats, woods, &c, 

 mentioned as stations for plants, with their bearings and distance from the 

 nearest market town or place of note," concludes the volume, and a large 

 and carefully executed folding map of the island, mounted on linen and 

 furnished with a stout cover, accompanies the work. 



