Ixx CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



been adopted in France, and to the more minute and accurate 

 examination of plants which was caused by the employment of that 



philosophical arrangement The publication of so complete 



and valuable a Linnaean work as the English Flwa greatly con- 

 tributed to the permanency of this feeling, and accordingly we find 

 that at a very recent period working English botanists were un- 

 acquainted with any of the more modern continental floras, and 

 indeed even now many of those works are only knoAvn by name to 

 the great mass of cultivators of British botany." 



The continental floras mentioned as having been consulted for 

 the Manual are entirely German — Koch's Synopsis, Reichenbach's 

 Icones and Iconographia, and Sturm's DeutscJdands Flora. In the 

 second edition (1847) Nee's Genera and Schkuhr's Riedgrdser are 

 added. The third and fourth editions (1851 and 1856), although 

 including "many additions and corrections," do not present many 

 noteworthy changes, except in detail : but the care which the 

 author took in revising each edition should be mentioned ; Babing- 

 ton's interleaved copies of each issue are preserved in the Cambridge 

 Herbarium, and afford ample evidence of the conscientious work 

 which rendered the often abused phrase "new edition" no empty 

 formula. Mr. Newbould had a similar copy ; his suggestions were 

 always at Babington's service, and frequently proved useful. 



The fifth edition, published in 1862, is noteworthy for the 

 recommendation of numerous French works, especially Grenier and 

 Godron's Flore de France, and of Fries's Novitiae. From this it will 

 be seen that by this time Babington had mastered the contents of 

 the principal critical floras of the Continent, and had recognized 

 their bearing upon British plants. Following his dictum "It is 

 most desirable that the students of our native Flora should not 

 confine their attention to books published in this country," comes 

 the sound advice which even at the present time cannot be con- 

 sidered altogether needless : — " It is necessary to warn students 

 against the very common error of supposing that they have found 

 one of the plants described in a foreign Flora, when in reality they 

 have only gathered a variety of some well-known British plant. 

 The risk of falling into such errors renders it necessary to consult 

 such Avorks as those of Messrs. Boreau and Jordan with great 

 caution, lest we should be misled by descriptions most accurate 

 indeed, but often rather those of individuals than species. Amongst 

 plants so closely allied as are many of those called species in some 

 continental works, it is scarcely possible to arrive at a certain con- 

 clusion without the inspection of authentic specimens." 



Shortly after the publication of the fourth edition of the Manual, 

 an important rival had appeared in Mr. Bentham's Handbook of the 

 British Flora (1858). There is no need here to enter upon a 

 discussion as to the relative merits of these works, each of which 

 has proved useful to many generations of botanists ; but it may be 

 well to reprint the remarks which Babington made in the preface 



