67 



those which have been further certified to the author by the evidence 

 of specimens alleged to have been gathered there. 



All these items of information should be considered essential in 

 every local flora. Any such publication, in which any of these requi- 

 sites are wanting or imperfect, is to that extent bad and defective, 

 whatever may be its merits in other respects. Additional information 

 of various kinds may often be advantageously introduced; and under 

 certain circumstances the omission of some other kinds of information 

 would be scarcely less a defect than the exclusion of any of the above 

 specified matters. But the necessity for such additions may be con- 

 sidered special, not general, — a distinctive peculiarity for the district 

 or its botany, be they topographical, historical, scientific, personal, or 

 otherwise. By way of example, we may instance the case of a flora 

 which relates to a mountainous tract, in which the range of altitude 

 for the several species should be indicated as nearly as can be done, 

 at least by successive stages or zones of elevation, if not by measured 

 altitudes. Or, as another example, let us take the case of a flora 

 which treats about the plants of some county or tract, within which 

 there have been suspicious localities or dubious species placed on re- 

 cord, and rendered questionably historical ; all of which should of 

 course be carefully investigated, in order to their verification or cor- 

 rection. 



There are some additions, and those pretty frequently introduced 

 into local floras, which may be deemed purely optional with the au- 

 thor ; and these will consequently be given or omitted in accordance 

 with his own personal views and tastes. In a general way, the optional 

 additions, introduced to gratify the whim or taste of the individual 

 author, will be found to render the work less acceptable to other par- 

 ties ; because they must increase the bulk of the book, add to its cost, 

 and obscure to some extent the essential points of information, with- 

 out giving equivalent advantages to the purchasers. Among these 

 purely and personally optional additions we would place scraps of 

 poetry, unnecessary references, descriptions of well known species or 

 genera, &c, &c. 



Were we to measure the 'Flora of Forfarshire' by our standard 

 above given, assuredly we should find occasion to curtail its dimen- 

 sions very much, on the balance between matters to be added and 

 matters to be omitted. Of the existing contents we would right 

 willingly dispense with two-thirds, as being either simply superfluous 

 or merely irrelevant ; while to the reserved one hundred, out of three 

 hundred pages, we might then add some fifty more pages in order to 



