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and Willow groups) combined with the strict definition seen in other spots, 
and even in some parts of these same groups, is in itself a) remarkable 
thing. It has instructiveness and interest, as it has a beauty of its own; 
it opens before us questions and suggests to us principles in natural life, 
which we should be in danger of entirely overlooking, were all forms as distinctly 
marked from each other as those of Bell-flowers, Heaths or Sedges. The 
accurate and thoughtful study of these groups—these spots where the luxuriance 
of nature is at its greatest—may furnish a key to questions in natural Science of 
import far larger than their own narrow limits. At the same time for the 
naturalist who works on a lower level they have an especial attraction as opening 
before him a multum in parvo—a world of interesting research lying within very 
narrow limits. It is, therefore, essentially unphilosophical and practically unwise, 
to pass over these groups with the slighting observation that they are all forms of 
one or a few very variable species. Possibly so; but neither can you know 
whether it is so or not without long and accurate study of the group; neither if 
it turns out to be so in the end, does this make the forms in the slightest degree 
less worth study ; and in the meantime you will have deepened and enriched your 
conceptions of the workings of life in nature, and of the meaning of the terms 
‘* species” and “‘ variety,” to a vast extent. You will have educated your eye and 
your mind (a truth I am sure all real workers in such groups will readily assent to) 
to perceive order when before was maze—to recognise unity and law, when at first 
all was confusion ; unity and law all the more charming, because so hidden in 
luxuriance. 
It may well be expected by you, that I shall remark at first that on such a 
subject as the knowledge of our Herefordshire Roses we have not yet approached 
finality. Even were the limits of the knowable approached in British Roses in 
general, our county contribution to that knowledge would have to be admitted to 
be very imperfect. Still enough has been observed in the county of Herefordshire to 
justify me in putting it before you in the shape of a paper on “‘ Herefordshire 
Roses” ; if only with a view to direct our botanists’ attention to what still remains 
to be done. 
The native forms of this genus are classed in the late Mr. Hewitt Watson’s 
last edition of the ‘‘ London Catalogue of British plants” under eleven species : 
and of these eleven, nine have been observed in Herefordshire. The two wanting, 
or rather not yet observed in the county, are the two rarest, and the two which 
shew the most restricted distribution in Britain ; namely R. hibernica Sm., which 
does not appear to extend south of Cheshire; and 2. sepium Thuill., a rare and 
somewhat obscure species, possessing however a distribution widely different 
from that of the last; the records of its observation being scattered from 
Northumberland to Hine Head. “It is not therefore impossible that the discovery 
of this last may yet reward the industry of Herefordshire botanists. 
It is possible that, upon first consideration of the foregoing statement, we 
might begin to congratulate ourselves upon shewing well in county Roses. But 
when we come to look into it, this impression vanishes. For the eleven species 
above mentioned are groups, more or less artificial, to classify some seventy 
