18G1.] ADDRESS OF THE EDITOR. 7 



tioB about recently discovered plants or new localities for previ- 

 ously known rare species. 



Since the publication of the Floras of Brighton^ Devon, and 

 Harrow, notes have reached the office of the ' Phytologist/ re- 

 questing that certain additions should be made to these local lists 

 of plants, and that additional localities for others should be re- 

 corded. This will ever be the case. When a list, or county or 

 local Flora is published, all who read it will endeavour to supply its 

 omissions or amend its defects. This cannot be done previously, 

 because the deficiencies or inaccuracies in the knowledge of the 

 author are unknown. 



The reverend author of the ' Flora Hertfordiensis,' which is 

 perhaps the most carefully compiled local Flora in Britain, pub- 

 lishes supplementary parts whenever a sufficiency of matter to 

 fill a sheet has accumulated. This plan of publishing supple- 

 ments has succeeded in the case of larger and more expensive 

 works than county Floras, and it is to be recommended on the 

 score of ecbuomy. A new edition mostly supersedes the original 

 work, but that objection does not hang to a supplement. 



Several series of new species, — new at least to some readers of 

 the ' Phytologist,' — have been submitted to British Phytologists."^ 

 For further particulars of these species, or segregations, as some 

 one pedantically calls them, or splits or chips, as they are rather 

 irreverently named by others, the readers are referred to vol. iv. 

 pp. 87-89, 121, 13S-i39. 



These real or presumed additions to the British Flora are very 

 plainly and carefully described in the Reports of the Thirsk 

 Natural History Society, and by a correspondent who entitled 

 his articles on this subject, ' Which is Ranunculus heterojjMjU 

 lus ?' — ' Look after Draba verna,' — ' British Lepigona' It is not 

 necessary to enter here the outlines of these papers, nor even to 

 name the plants. 



Whatever may be the opinion of botanists in general about 

 the validity, or genuineness, or permanence of these species, if 

 they be thought worthy of this dignified rank, there can be no 



* Tliis double meaning of the term Phytologist is very tantalizing. Properly 

 it is the name of a person, not of a book ; as geologist, entomologist, etc. The 

 title of our work should be, ' The Phytological Magazine,' if we wanted to give a 

 learned title to oiu' humble periodical. We hope our readers will not give us the 

 credit of inventing this pedantic, ambiguous name. 



