1861.] ARENARIA BALEARICA. 51 



has been prevented^ the ill weed has had its blossom nipped off) Avas 

 hatched by two persons, viz. by Mr. Sim, the " would-be-thonght 

 discoverer," and by the Editor, who was not sufficiently prepared 

 (duly prepared) by "geographico-botauical knowledge" to deal 

 with such difficult questions as the publication of a notice of a 

 plant strayed from the Continent. We ask our readers, if Mr. 

 H. C. W. deserves so well of society as to have a monopoly of all 

 botanical discoveries ? Or is he alone to have the jyiivilege of 

 promulgating such scraps of information? No such pretensions 

 will be admitted. Mr. W. may make discoveries; and, like the 

 barn-yard fowl, which cackles loudly and warns the whole home- 

 stead when she has laid an egg, he may sound his own applausive 

 trumpet-note, and beg the entire scientific family of mankind, and 

 womankind also, to listen to his sAvan-like song of self-compla- 

 cency. And why not ? Gentle reader, we gainsay him not ; he 

 will never be blamed by us for celebrating his own praises ; we 

 rather pity him, for it is miivcrsally credited that when a man 

 humbles himself to speak and write in commendation of himself, 

 he has lost all his friends. 



But why will not Mr. W. let us have the same liberty which 

 he takes to himself? " Would-be discoverers !" Does not Mr. 

 W. wish to be a discoverer, to be enrolled among the benefactors 

 of the human race, with Columbus, with Bacon, with Harvey, 

 with Newton, Jenner, Watt, and Stephenson? Yes, truly; but 

 this discovery of Mr. Sim's is no discovery ; it is a pseudo-disco- 

 very ; a discovery and a false discovery, an entity and a nonentity. 



On this we join issue, lead a proof, request a fair hearing, and 

 subsequently we will call on the jury for a triumphant acquittal. 



Mr. W. has perversely misrepresented the case. In the first 

 place, no discovery was either claimed or wished for by Mr. Sim; 

 for, from the tenor of his note, printed in our January numbei', 

 p. 32, 1861, he disclaims its discovery altogether. Let this pass. 

 How do you, Mr. Reviewer, exculpate the Editor whose skill in 

 geography is not nearly up to the mark ? Very easily. Mr. 

 Watson may profitably remember the old proverb, " They that 

 live in glass houses should not throw stones." Mr. W. edited 

 the 'New Botanist's Guide,' and in this work I find that he con-- 

 founds Brompton in Middlesex with Brompton in Kent. Like 

 Captain Fluellyn, he is as hasty in his temper as he is in judg- 

 ments founded on defective comparison ; or he speaks and writes 



