XIV 



the pelorian snapdragons and violets; the extreme rarity of instances 

 in which any species of plant produces in its corolla the three usual 

 colours, two being the utmost variation in which nature seems dis- 

 posed to indulge; — these and a hundred other instances might be 

 adduced to prove the utility of recording facts : directly they are made 

 patent they become part and parcel of the science ; so obvious, 

 indeed, that they are never in future to be overlooked, though 

 formerly unknown to all, and even now escaping the notice of all but 

 the instructed. It rarely, indeed, falls to our lot in the present day 

 to be the first to notice facts like those 1 have here incidentally men- 

 tioned ; neither do we all possess the discriminating power of 

 originally detecting such facts. We cannot all be Robert Browns, 

 but we can all add our mite to the general mass of knowledge, and 

 we owe this return for the instruction we have received. 



EDWARD NEWMAN. 



9, Devonshire St., Bishopsgate, 

 December 12, 1850. 



