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notice of me in it. The descriptions which you 
have so judiciously added to every plant lessen the 
botanist’s labour tenfold, and every little amplifica- 
tion of generic characters (e.g. in the Umbelliferous 
plants) is valuable. The new specific descriptions, 
also,are most important: e.g. I used to find Gen- 
tiana amarella near Netherby, “corolla 4-fida”; and 
what ground had I to doubt its being campestris, 
as it had been described in Hudson? I could ob- 
serve no other difference, and from not knowing 
the real campestris, disbelieved there being such a 
plant as a distinct species. 
Tuomas FRANKLAND. 
“Hudson, Lightfoot, and Withering,” says the 
Rev. E. B. Ramsay, “wrote Moras on the system 
of Linneus; but there can be no doubt that Sir 
James Edward Smith was the most accomplished 
disciple of this school, and the best expounder of 
its principles. The Flora Britannica is perhaps the 
most perfect specimen existing; a work of which 
it has been said by no mean authority, that it is 
worth studying, as well for its logical precision, as 
for its botanical information.” 
J. E. Smith to the Editor of the Monthly Review. 
Sir, Norwich, March 2, 1801. 
The very favourable, and perhaps partial account 
of the Flora Britannica, given in your Review for 
January, is too intelligent in itself, not to deserve 
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