Xll INTRODUCTION. 



connected with botanical science." They were held 

 monthly in the several villages and towns in rotation ; 

 and annually, in the summer, there was a general 

 meeting of all the societies, at a different place each 

 year. 



This organisation still exists, and an annual 

 meeting was held in July last, at which I was 

 present. A large number of people assembled, pro- 

 bably over fifteen hundred. The weather was 

 unfavourable, or, I was told, there would have been 

 more; and that last year there were over two 

 thousand. A great number of specimens were 

 exhibited and named by the president, Mr. Percival. 

 The members are informed that *^as specific discri- 

 mination and accuracy in botanical nomenclature 

 are the chief objects sought to be obtained by the aid 

 of the meetings, all persons who attend are hereby 

 respectfully solicited to bring with them such speci- 

 mens of plants — either indigenous or exotic, but 

 particularly the former — as they can conveniently 

 procure." These were arranged on a long table, in 

 the tent in which the meeting was held, in the order 

 of the Linnean classes, all of which were represented. 

 Mr. Percival named them in succession, giving first 

 the scientific, and then an English, name. Many of 

 the British plants were either generally rare or 

 locally so, among which may be mentioned Sea 

 Holly, Henbane, Deadly Nightshade, Asarabacca, 

 Pied Bryony, and Sea Beet. Besides their names, 

 and whether they were British or exotic, occasional 



