2 ADDRESS OF THE EDITOR. [January, 



It should not be forgotten, while considering the causes of the 

 disappearance of well-known names from our list, that a period 

 of nearly twenty years which have elapsed since the establish- 

 ment of this journal, produces gaps in all ranks, those of botanists 

 not excepted. Deaths, removals, and the infirmities that follow 

 increasing years, have during the last twenty years materially 

 diminished the number of those who take an interest in local 

 botany and in the collecting and recording of facts relative to the 

 British plants. While we record this with pensive feelings, and 

 live continually in ominous expectancy of the inroads of our last 

 enemy, we announce, with much satisfaction, to all our readers, 

 who will be gratified by this information, that there are bands of 

 hopeful juniors rising up and receiving a course of training from 

 the veterans of science, and are preparing to take our place and 

 fulfil our functions. 



Our hope is not lost with the loss of a couple of the earliest 

 and most diffusive writers in the Old Series, — who are alive, and 

 long may they live, if long life will bring late repentance ! We 

 know no other wilful deserters but these, who are like the shep- 

 herds celebrated in the famous eclogue, — 



"Arcades ambo ; 

 Et pugnare pares, et respondere parati." * 



If few of the original subscribers continue to support our un- 

 dertaking, few have abandoned us ; and we have the goodwill of 

 the remainder, if not their active co-operation. 



It is known to almost all, if not all, our readers, that at the 

 commencement of a new year, and also of a new volume, an 

 abridgment of what has been accomplished in British botany 

 during the past twelve months is expected in our annual exposi- 

 tion ; and it will be our care to make this synopsis as compre- 

 hensive, clear, and instructive as we are able. 



The Editor also claims the privilege, once in the year, of offer- 

 ing — deferentially, of course — some hints and suggestions to both 

 correspondents and readers, of explaining the past, and expressing 



* The learned quoter of the above paragraph might have more appropriately 

 compared the two learned pundits to the two Kings of Brentford, who entered 

 smelhn<T at one rose or nosegay. The two Virgilian shepherds were prepared to 

 banter each other ; the two modem representatives of the Brentford monarchy, 

 unlike the shepherds, are celebrated for singing the same song, tandem eantilenam 

 canere amuhant. 



