280° Dr. Smrta’s Odfervations on the Britifh. Species of Bromus, 
other, as it often happens, a Student may choofe between them: 
preferring a defcription of Curtis, Lyons, or Hudfon, to one of 
Haller or Scopoli, becaufe of the probability of the fpecies thefelaft 
writers defcribed not agreeing with our Britifh ones, or with. thofe 
of Linnzus. Haller indeed is far from correct in his Linnean, 
fynonyms,. fo that I find it dangerous to quote him without very, 
particular reafons. But if there be fo much uncertainty in.com- 
piled fynonyms and defcriptions, even when we are informed.fromi 
whence they are derived, what fhall we fay to Mr. Lightfoot’s plan. 
of copying from all quarters without any acknowledgment:at all? 
His book is made up of paffages from Linnzus, Haller, Scopoli,. 
Dillenius and Gmelin ; and he is not by any means attentive to the, 
agreement of thofe paflages with the native plants to which he 
applies them. If the writer of every Flora would give original 
defcriptions or characters, from real wild {pecimens, his. work muft 
be valuable; and on this account Dr. Withering’s third edition 
becomes a book of firft-rate authority, no defcriptions being 
more juft than his, as far as they go. For the fame reafon Mr. 
Curtis’s Flora Londinenfis, though incomplete, ought to be ranked, 
independent of its excellent figures, next to Ray’s Synopfs in original 
merit and authority upon Englifh plants. 
With thefe examples before me, to fhum or to imitate, Lhaye 
long laboured at the Flora Britannica; and it is evident that, on fuch, 
a plan as I have propofed to myfelf, it cannot very fpeedily be 
completed. By ftudying original {pecimens in the great colleétions 
at the Britith Mufeum and at Oxford, I hope'to bring the fynonyms 
nearer to perfection than they are at prefent, and have already 
cleared up many difficulties. Many of my difcoveries are daily, 
given to the world in the Exgl/b Botany; and I appeal to their 
number, not from oftentation, but as an apology for not having 
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