252 Mr Arnott's Tour to the South of France 



ly as a botanist. In Britain, a nurseryman is literally ajlorist f 

 in France, he is a cultivateur-hotaniste. From the latter, one 

 receives a specimen with more pleasure, as, when put into the 

 herbarium, it is to represent the species. 



This precision of nomenclature is no doubt much facilitated 

 by the plan adopted by the Jardin du Roi. In France, there 

 are, in addition to the several botanical institutions in Paris, 

 many smaller ones, also under the government, scattered through 

 the country. I may instance those of Lyons, of Strasburg, of 

 Montpellier, of Toulouse, and of Perpignan. When any of 

 these receive the root of a new or rare species from another 

 country, or its seeds, the year following either seeds or roots 

 are transmitted to the Jardin du Roi at Paris ; and also, when 

 any new plant arrives there, it is as soon as possible dissemi- 

 nated through the smaller establishments in the provinces. The 

 care and attention paid to the naming of plants at the Museum, 

 prevents almost the possibility of an error, and thus in the go- 

 vernment institutions in the country, the species is found well 

 determined. Specimens from such places are of great utility in 

 determining with exactness similar species in the private nur- 

 series, and, as I have already said, a botanist may look forward 

 to study in any of them. One ought never to take a specimen 

 from a British garden for their herbaria without examining it 

 well. In France, one may take it as an authority by which to 

 name others. 



I cannot conclude these remarks, without observing, that the 

 probable cause of the whole is the small inducement there is in 

 Britain for any young man to devote himself to botany as a 

 profession. In France there are so many public establishments, 

 that a young man, if talented, and active and efficient in his 

 studies, may, in a few years, look forward to a public appoint- 

 ment. In England, on the contrary, the Government have 

 scarcely, I think, half a dozen botanical establishments in their 

 pay. The consequence is, that in Paris alone tliere are more 

 botanists of note than in the whole of Great Britain. Britain, 

 it is true, possesses Brown, the greatest botanist of our time ; 

 also. Smith, Hooker and Lindley, men eminently distinguished 

 in the annals of botanical science ; but when their days are num- 



