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accessions to our British flora, some of these of the class of annuals 

 before referred to, which would be ready again to quit the flora in the 

 event of a cessation of cultivation, and others of a more permanent 

 caste, which have likewise been introduced by the agency of mankind, 

 but which have established themselves amongst the real indigenous 

 vegetation of the land, and, as has been remarked, now bid defiance 

 to all efforts at extermination. The plants of the two classes I refer 

 to are alike dealt little with by botanists ; and whenever any person 

 reports the occurrence of such a plant in any part of this country, he 

 is sure to be denounced as one desiring to attach too much im- 

 portance to his observations, and it is of no avail in warding off such 

 a denouncement, that the observer has the candour to express his con- 

 viction that the plant has been introduced in the manner referred to. 

 This should not be the case ; and it would not be the case were bo- 

 tanists to give that attention which is due to naturalized species ; but 

 it is the present fashion for botanists capriciously to discard all spe- 

 cies that cannot be proven to be really indigenous to the country. If 

 we do not begin to care something for naturalized species, we shall 

 by and by only have to study the flora of Britain as it once existed, 

 which has vanished away like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaving 

 but a wreck behind, which owes its rescue to the stone tablets of 

 Geology. 



Although general in my condemnation of the way in which natu- 

 ralized aliens are treated, I am aware that there are botanists who do 

 attach importance to these interesting plants, and I am very glad to 

 see that Mr. Watson introduces these plants into his important work 

 the ' Cybele Britannica,' although I could have wished that they 

 should have had importance with him sufficient to induce his record- 

 ing the geographical distribution (in this country) of such as are 

 thoroughly naturalized. 



My remarks on the present occasion have been drawn forth by a 

 paper, published in your August number, by Mr. Woodward (Phytol. 

 iii. 201), purporting to interpret the terms native, naturalized, and 

 imperfectly naturalized, the publication of which seems only calcu- 

 lated to mystify and confuse what was clear enough before. 



Passing over the most considerable portion of Mr. Woodward's 

 paper, we come to the remark : — " Buckwheat, maize, hemp, and So- 

 lanum tuberosum would be a grand addition to the British Flora, 

 quite on a par with the Eschscholtzia, Impatiens, Mimuli, and Mar- 

 tagon lilies, which are registered as growing for a season on some 

 lonely rubbish-heap." Now, Mr. Woodward's paper is in many 



