359 



A NOTE ON LOCAL LISTS. 

 By the Editor. 



The paper on the Flora of Denbighshire, issued as a Sup- 

 plement to this Journal and concluding with our present issue, 

 suggests a few reflections which we think it well to print for the 

 guidance of those who may be good enough to send us similar 

 preliminaries to a Flora — which, we may add, we are always glad 

 to receive. The contribution in question was printed under a 

 misapprehension ; it had been returned to the author on the 

 understanding that it would be materially reduced in bulk before 

 going to press, and on that understanding the Editor had given 

 instructions for its publication. His absence from England pre- 

 vented him from seeing the first instalment in proof ; and that 

 being printed off, it was of course necessary that the remainder 

 should correspond with it. 



In the first place, it is entirely unnecessary (at any rate in a 

 preliminary list) to quote every station from which a plant common 

 throughout the county has been recorded. To take an example, 

 the localities for Malva moschata occupy eighteen lines in Mr. 

 Dallman's first list and nine in the second. This would be ex- 

 cessive even in a complete Flora, and is certainly redundant in 

 preliminary lists ; examples of this superfluity are evident on 

 almost every page of the lists. Again, there seems no advantage 

 in such doubtful records as that under Badicula amphibia (p. 7) ; 

 entries of this kind were eliminated from the later portions of the 

 list, and this is only cited as an example of things to avoid. 



With regard to the citation of names of contributors, this of 

 course is an act of courtesy which should on no account be 

 omitted ; but it cannot be necessary to indicate after each locality 

 for a common plant the initials of the person who found it there 

 — still less to give two authorities, as is often done in the 

 Denbighshire lists. We can quite understand that folk like to 

 have due credit for their observations, but it seems hardly neces- 

 sary to record that they found a daisy or a buttercup in a given 

 locality, and still less that two of them did so. A general acknow- 

 ledgement in the prefatory remarks and special mention in the 

 case of interesting species is all that any reasonable person can 

 require— at any rate, in a scientific publication. There is always 

 an ample outlet in local papers for folk who like to see their 

 names in print. In the Denbighshire lists such acknowledgement 

 is duly made in the preface, and it seems unnecessary to print on 

 every page many times the initials of those whose help has been 

 thus recognised. 



In a preliminary list of the extent of those in question, some 

 indication of districts or some grouping of localities should be 

 given for the benefit of those unacquainted with the county. If 

 this were done, the needlessness of multiplying entries of definite 

 localities would at once become obvious. 



We have felt it necessary to make these remarks because we 

 know that we have been criticised for printing the Denbighshire 



