898 



incurring the discredit of announcing over again those facts which 

 are ah*eady well known. 



As explained in the ' Phytologist ' for April (Phytol. ii. 784), the 

 counties of Britain are grouped into eighteen provinces, in the Cybele. 

 The occurrence or non-occurrence of each species, in each of these 

 eighteen provinces, is shown ; and if reported to grow there, its con- 

 dition also, whether indigenous or introduced, or doubtful from some 

 source of error or uncertainty. At present only the first volume of 

 the Cybele is published, which includes nearly six hundred species, 

 reckoning varieties treated as such, doubti'uls and aliens, along with 

 the rest. Six hundred multiplied by eighteen gives a total of 10,800 

 facts, positive and negative. More than the half of these facts are 

 positive ; and as the condition under which the positive fact (to wit, 

 the alleged occurrence of the species in the province) is viewed, is 

 likewise to be added, we shall be below truth in saying 15,000 facts, 

 under this head of provincial distribution alone. I use the term 

 " facts " because they are set forth as such. But owing to imperfect 

 records, errors, and various other circumstances, there is reason to 

 suppose that many of these reputed facts do truly require to be diffe- 

 rently stated. For instance, various species may hereafter be found 

 to grow in provinces which are at present set down as blanks for 

 them. Others may be found really wild in provinces where they are 

 now entered as introduced or naturalized, and vice versa. Others 

 may be ascertained to grow in provinces where as yet they are entered 

 under suspicion of error. Any discovery of a locality or species 

 which will correct any one of the reputed 15,000 facts, must be de- 

 serving of announcement and record. Any such discovery which 

 may simply add to the evidence either way, in cases of Tincertainty, 

 although without being conclusive in itself, will most likely be also 

 worth recording. By the time the Cybele is completed these 15,000 

 reputed facts will have accumulated into 50,000 ; and little indeed 

 must be his knowledge of British botany (whatever he may know of 

 British plants) who shall find himself unable to make a single correc- 

 tion, or to give some useful item of information towards correcting 

 some of these 50,000 reputed facts. In this light, it is to be remem- 

 bered, that localities for quite common species may be equally useful 

 as those for the rarest. 



In the same work, the most northern and the most southern coun- 

 ties, in which each native and perfectly naturalized species has been 

 ascertained, are also mentioned. In the one published volume these 

 species (with varieties treated as species) amount to about five hun- 



