2 
I do not say that these distant excursions are undesirable. 
They serve to introduce a little variety in relief of the sameness, 
which necessarily attends walks confined to the immediate 
neighbourhood of a town. At the same time they open the mind 
to wider spheres of usefulness, and sometimes offer suggestions 
that may be turned to good account nearer home. To illustrate 
what I mean: A man who has studied the geology of England as 
a whole would be better able than others, from wider experience, 
to explain the details of any particular district he is set to 
investigate. 
After frequent thinking on the matter of these excursions, it 
was a pleasant surprise to receive a notice from our secretary 
announcing a proposed Botanical excursion to Glastonbury Moors. 
This was quite a step in the right direction. But such a walk, as 
in the case of all Botanical walks, should be taken in connection 
with the time of year. None, or very few, of the plants which 
Broome and I found on Shapwick Moor the second week of July 
would be in flower much before Midsummer Day, if so soon. A 
list of them may be seen in manuscript at the commencement of 
the copy of Babington’s Flora Bathoniensis in the Jenyns Library. 
And while on this subject I may remark that several short or 
moderate walks in this neighbourhood might be taken any day | 
by such Members of this Club as like to go; which would be 
especially useful if directed to the purpose I spoke of in my last 
lecture to the Club, in the autumn of 1891. I then mentioned, 
if you remember, how desirable it would be to ascertain whether 
certain of the more interesting species of the Bath Plants 
were still to be found in the localities in which they were met 
with formerly. A few such walks as suggest themselves to me I 
will put on paper separate from this letter. 
I would further remark, in connection with this subject, that 
in the Jenyns Library at the Literary Institution, below the 
general Herbarium of British Plants, there is a cupboard to the 
left in which will be seen a large folio volume labelled Bath 
