XXX1V FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
took his advice, with tne result that my herbarium 
is now fully representative of the flora of the county. 
I have visited all the larger islands, and as a rule 
spent a few days in each. F lotta is the largest I 
have not been able to visit. Mr Arthur Bennett, 
F.L.S., is deeply interested in the flora of the North 
of Scotland, and examined the specimens sent him 
with great care. The notes added to the more 
variable species testify to this. 
When help was so accessible, and many eager 
workers in the field, my only compunction is that 
the publication of this work has been proceeded 
with too early. It would certainly have been freer 
from errors and fuller had the time of preparation 
been prolonged ; but there is on the other hand this 
compensation, that my botanical friends in this 
research work will have a hand-book with which 
to compare notes. As time goes on additions will 
be made and errors eradicated, so that finally we 
shall be enabled to claim for the “Flora” a close 
approach to accuracy. My only plea for lenient 
eriticism from fellow-botanists is that the time for 
this responsible task was snatched from a very busy 
professional life, and that in my pursuit of botanical 
knowledge I have had to visit a large number of 
widely-seattered parishes and islands, which, in the 
absence of a regular service of any kind, are made 
more inaccessible than most other. parts of the British 
Isles. A botanist from the centre of England once 
put it thus, “You live in a county where, if you 
desire to reach a place ten or twelve miles distant 
as the crow flies, you have to take probably two 
