236 THE JOUUNAL OF BOTAIiT 



has " 1839 sqq. v. vols." ; Dr. Jackson's Guide, " 1839, 8 vols." 

 (doubtless a mere misprint) ; the Catalogues of the Libraries of the 

 British and Natural History Museums and the Dicfionarj/ of 

 National Bio()raph\j, 1887-46 ; the Catalogue of the Kew Library, 

 1838-40 ; that of the Linnean Society, 1838-42 ; the Index of 

 English Printed Books, 1837-42. In face of such discrepancies, it 

 may be well to ascertain, at least approximately, the accurate dates ; 

 the volumes themselves supply no help, as no title-page is dated. 



With regard to the date at which The Botanist began, the 

 prospectus on the wrapper of the first number makes it clear that this 

 is correctly stated by none of the authorities cited. The front page 

 bears the date January 1, 1837, but on the back page is the following 

 statement, from which it would appear that the magazine had been 

 announced for an earlier date than that at which it actually appeared : 

 " To have deferred the publication of the Botanist would have 

 occasioned much disappointment, and to have commenced issuing it, 

 monthly, before the beginning of the year, would have produced an 

 irregularity either in the size of the volumes, or the periods of their 

 completion, which could never afterwards be obviated ; the following 

 mode of publication will therefore be adopted. 



" In the undermentioned 1 will be [ the numbers of the following 

 months J published [ dates : 



September, 1836. January, 1837. 



November, 1836. February, 1837. 



January, 1837. March, 1837. 



March, 1837. April, 1837. 



May, 1837. May, 1837. 



And afterwards the Botanist Avill be published regularly on the first 

 day of ever}' month." 



That the first number appeared about the date indicated is evident 

 from the fact that it is noticed in Loudon's Gardener s Magazine 

 for November 1836 (p. 598). The promise of regular issue seems to 

 have been carried out for the first four volumes, so far as the numbers 

 were concerned, though the volumes themselves were at times delayed 

 in order to include the Siqyplement (as to which later), at others " in 

 consequence of the disagreement existing between the journeymen 

 bookbinders of London and their employers " — " strikes " apparently 

 had not then received that name ; it also occasionally happened, as 

 we learn from the cover of no. 30, that " some portion of a number" 

 was " unavoidably delayed at a time too late to admit of the circum- 

 stance being noticed on the wrapper." For much of the above in- 

 formation I am indebted to the copy of the Botanist at Kew in 

 which almost all the wrappers have been preservwd, those of the two 

 last numbers, however, are missing, nor have I been able to find them 

 — nor indeed any wrappers — elsewhere. 



The general regularity of issue is confirmed by the references to 

 the Botanist in the " Floricultural and Botanical Notices " which 

 formed a useful feature of the Gardeiier's Magazine and are often 

 of great assistance in fixing dates of periodicals. Loudon was a good 

 bibliographer, and in these notices the month of issue is frequently 

 given; the approximate dates of the numbers of Loddiges' Botanical 



