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to start a hypothesis, but a very few may serve to impart 

 usefulness to our labours. A single fact, carefully ascertained, 

 may sometimes be sufficient for this. We know not what amount 

 of good may come of it in the end^ what it may lead to, 

 however barren and unprofitable it appear at the moment. 

 It may open out a wide field for the energies of others to tread 

 and turn to account ; it may, perchance, even prove^ a source 

 of wealth and happiness to which we can set no limits. And 

 whatever we do or attempt in this way, however imperfectly, for 

 the good of our fellow-men, is, at the same time, we humbly 

 hope, done to the glory of God. 



On the Bath Flora. By Rev. L. Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 &c., President. 



(Read December 5th, 1866.^ 



•Gentlemen, 



By the Flora of any country or district we mean its native 

 plants, (or such as may be regarded, if not indigenous to the 

 •soil, at least naturalised), considered collectively. In taking the 

 Bath Flora as a subject for this evening's lecture, I have complied 

 with the request of friends,— though it is a subject not easily 

 made interesting to a mixed audience like that I am addressing. 

 It would be a very meagre affair merely to give you a list of 

 the plants that gi'ow about Bath, even with the addition of the 

 localities in which they are to be found. This, too, has 

 T)een done already in the "Flora Bathoniensis " of Professor 

 Babington. Neither would it do to go into details respecting 

 their structure and affinities, which to those unacquainted with 

 the first elements of the science of Botany would be dry, and in 

 some measure unintelligible. It appeared to me, therefore, that 

 the best plan would be to speak of the plants of this neighbour- 



