HAND-BOOK OF THE BRITISH FLORA. 105 



characters, often of the greatest importance in scientific 

 botany, but useless to the mere amateur." 3. The descrip- 

 tions are original, and have been drawn up from British 

 specimens in the first instance, and afterwards compared with 

 the characters given in the standard Floras, and verified upon 

 continental specimens from various parts of the geographical 

 range of the species. As a describer of species (which is 

 something very different from a describer of specimens), Mr. 

 Bentham has no superior. 4. The geographical range of each 

 species, at least its European range, is carefully specified; 

 then the British stations are given in general terms, the object 

 being to state where the plant is likely to be found, rather 

 than to indicate the precise spot where it has been gathered. 

 5. The judicious limitation of species, and the reduction of a 

 crowd of nominal or " critical " species to their supposed types, 

 with a thoroughness which only a botanist of Mr. Bentham's 

 great experience and authority could well venture upon. The 

 following extract from the preface will explain his views : — 



" Taking into account the omission of all plants erroneously 

 indicated as British, it will still, no doubt, be a matter of 

 astonishment that, whilst the last edition of Hooker and 

 Arnott's Flora contains 1571 species, and that of Babington's 

 Manual as many as 1708 (exclusive of Chara), the number, 

 in the present work, is reduced to 1285. This is not owing 

 to any real difference of opinion as to the richness and di- 

 versity of our vegetable productions, but is occasioned by a 

 different appreciation of the value of the species themselves. 

 The author has long been persuaded that the views originally 

 entertained by Linnaeus, of what really constitutes a species, 

 were far more correct than the limited sense to which many 

 modern botanists seem inclined to restrict the term ; and that 

 in most cases where that great master had good means of 

 observation, he succeeded admirably in the practical applica- 

 tion of his principles. At any rate, if those minute distinctions 

 by which the innumerable varieties of Brambles, of Roses, of 

 Hawk-weeds, or of Willows, have of late years been charac- 

 terized, are really more constant and more important than 

 the author's experience has led him to conclude, they cannot 



