895 



*' superior authority ;" because it is usually the smatterers in botany 

 who indulge in recording the old localities over again ; some of them, 

 it may be, in innocent ignorance that such books as Botanist's Guides 

 have ever been published. 



Much has been done during the past ten years in the way of ascer- 

 taining and recording localities ; and the Botanist's Guides have 

 doubtless fallen in arrear as general compilations. But still, as far as 

 they do go, they would save us from a vast deal of useless reiteration 

 of well-established facts, if they were more usually consulted by our 

 hasty recorders of localities. So, again, with the London Catalogue 

 of British Plants; which has placed within the reach of every bota- 

 nist such a test of the comparative frequency of our native species as 

 may enable them to discriminate between the rare and the common 

 plants, with at least sufficient certainty for avoiding unnecessary re- 

 cords of localities for species of general occurrence. 



A difficulty yet remains. While the use of a Botanist's Guide and 

 a London Catalogue might often save us from the infliction of " old 

 over again," or of unimportant facts not worth recording, they may 

 still not show, with sufficient clearness for beginners, what facts bear 

 an opposite character — what may be best worth recording on the 

 ground of their novelty, of their tendency to correct errors, or of 

 aught else which may give some scientific value to them. It is prin- 

 cipally with a view of offering some suggestions on this head, that I 

 have now taken pen in hand. , To point out the right track, and the 

 path of real usefulness, may prove a more successful effort towards 

 leading others from the wrong way than any attempt to impede their 

 course along the latter. In doing so, I must take it for granted that 

 botanists who seek to record their own observations in Nature, are 

 influenced chiefly by two motives ; first, a desire of contributing 

 something to the accumulated stores of scientific knowledge ; se- 

 condly, such a feeling of personal satisfaction as any one may very 

 justifiably entertain under the consciousness of having thus usefully 

 employed himself. But the egotistic individual, who only obtrudes 

 on the public with his repetitions of things trite and trifling, neither 

 adds to our stores of knowledge nor employs himself usefully. I ad- 

 dress myself to the former, not to the latter class of botanists ; and I 

 am satisfied that there are many of the former among the contributors 

 to the * Phytologist.' 



A new edition of the 'Manual of British Botany' has very recently 

 been published. It is likely that a new edition of the ' London Cata- 

 logue of British Plants' will be required before next year. Mr. 



