109 
outdone. The names, both trivial and generic, are 
accented through the body of the work, as most 
people seemed to concur with your opinion. The 
times of flowering are marked as accurately as I 
knew how to mark them; those of ripening the 
seeds would certainly be useful, but I know not 
any source from whence they could be derived. The 
same difficulty occurs too as to the opening and 
shutting of the flowers. The budding of the leaves 
differs so much in the southern, the midland, and 
the northern parts of this island, and all these differ 
again so widely in particular years, that the task of 
marking them would be endless. I have seen the 
gooseberry trees in Scotland naked, and in six days’ 
ride to the south found them in full leaf. Trees 
which in this place were in full leaf on the 18th of 
April last year had not a bud unfolded on the 10th 
of the present May. 
I apprehend that many of our plants supposed to 
be Linnean may be in the same predicament with the 
Solidago Virgaurea, but certainly can no otherways 
be ascertained than by an actual comparison of our 
dubious plants with his, and this we were in hopes 
of doing had young Linné lived; but we hear the 
whole collection is coming to England, though 
ignorant into whose hands it has fallen. You can 
probably inform me, and likewise of the probability 
of procuring aid from that quarter. 
[ remain, Sir, with great respect, 
Your obliged 
W. WITrHERING. 
