VI 



it best to erase the complimentary expressions of my friends from 

 their various communications, I have not been the less sensible of 

 the kindness intended. 



With respect to lists of plants my views may be peculiar, but T 

 cannot refrain from expressing my satisfaction at the great decrease 

 in the number of these transmitted to me for publication. I am not 

 aware of the utility of these lists as generally published. Were they 

 restricted to species of excessive rarity which had not previously been 

 detected in the stations pointed out, I can easily conceive an interest 

 attaching to such records, more particularly if they extend the geo- 

 graphical or geological limits of a species. Or, on the other hand, 

 were such lists complete, as far as regards any precisely defined or 

 geographically circumscribed region, a degree of value would certain- 

 ly attach to them. But they rarely possess either of these qualifica- 

 tions : a number of the very commonest species and a few rarities 

 are usually given, whilst an equal number of equally common species 

 are omitted, species, the absence of which would be a most interesting 

 fact, and worthy of comment, but which are omitted only through 

 want of care in the compilation, and neither on account of their uni- 

 versal occurrence, nor on account of their entire absence. Under 

 these circumstances such lists appear to me scarcely truthful. The 

 occurrence of such names as those of groundsel and chickweed leads 

 one to suppose that all species have been included, or wherefore these ? 

 And the absence of these names, while others equally common are 

 given, induces the erroneous conclusion that the plants also are 

 absent. 1 also find that in many instances, the names of rarities 

 have been given without sufficient care, the plants often turning out 

 to have been wrongly named or notoriously introduced. 



I have again to acknowledge the obligation I am under to Mr. Lux- 

 ford for the great care displayed in his editorial superintendence. 



I can scarcely conclude these observations without a passing 

 notice of the ,vast benefit which has lately been conferred on British 



