893 



developed other fronds; the weather was cold and cloudy, and I also 

 manufactured an artificial shade, so that they had no sun at all: in 

 both species these fronds have retained a vivid green colour, and thus 

 the same plants of different genera ai"e novy bearing fronds of the most 

 opposite colours. A series of experiments has convinced me that 

 this result is not accidental but always attainable under proper 

 management. 



Edward Newman. 



Suggestions for recording the Localities and Distribution of British 

 Plants. By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



In the ' Phytologist ' for May (Phytol. ii. 824), Mr. Newman has 

 called attention to the services which might be rendered to science, 

 "by inserting in the pages of the ' Phytologist' a record of careful 

 observations on the range of British species, and more particularly of 

 those which Mr. Watson has included in his first volume," that is, of 

 the 'Cybele Britannica.' I beg here to offer some further suggestions 

 on the manner of carrying forward this recommendation into a practi- 

 cal result ; and to explain how much many of the past and present 

 very inadequate attempts might now be improved upon. 



The great impediment in the path of improvement is obvious 

 enough. It is to be found in the undeniable fact, that most botanists 

 are in such haste to publish their own individual observations, in form 

 of local lists and localities, that they will not wait until they have 

 first ascertained the doings of others in the same line. They appear 

 tacitly to assume that the facts which are new to themselves must be 

 novelties also to the records of science, and worthy of public an- 

 nouncement. The consequence of this tacit assumption, without tak- 

 ing the trouble to inquire into its soundness, is seen in numerous 

 records and announcements of little or no value, which have occupied 

 the pages of periodicals more or less during the past twenty years. 

 The same localities, for the same species, have been announced and 

 recorded over and over again; local lists, professedly of "rare plants," 

 have abounded with the names of generally-distributed species, while 

 those of much more limited species have been omitted therefrom ; 

 important deficiencies in our information on the ranges and limits of 

 species have not been filled up b}' those botanists who had the oppor- 

 tunity and the willingness to do this, lacking only the requisite 

 Vol. II. 5 t 



