54 AUENARiA BALEARiCA. [February, 



plant, and how could we bint or suggest its garden origin? We 

 knew that it was found in or about a garden, but so are many 

 plants notoriously wild. We might have suggested what is not 

 true, and a suggestio falsi is as bad as a suppressio veri. We 

 must be on our guard ; " Evil communications corrupt good 

 manners." Nothing was hinted, and nothing was suggested, and 

 therefore nobody was misled into a false supposition. Besides, 

 there are Balearic plants which are also British plants ; and there 

 are even more Arenarias than this one, which are common to 

 both the British and the Balearic Isles. How could it be af- 

 firmed with certainty that this is not one of these common plants ? 

 There is positive evidence that it grew there, and there is only 

 negative evidence against its being a probable native. Surely 

 the testimony of two or three or four witnesses is to be I'eceived 

 as a proof much more credible and cogent than the mere opinion 

 of a botanical geographer, who finds plants growing in or among 

 the clouds, one thousand feet above the highest hills of Devon, 

 and that with his eyes open. Surely his unsupported supposal, 

 when he is about half a thousand miles from the spot, is not a 

 very convincing kind of negative proof. 



But it appears that the attribution of the name of the plant 

 to the finder is a fault. It is no such thing. Can nobody 

 identify plants but Mr. Watson ? There are two mistakes here. 

 Mr. Sim was not the original discoverer or finder of the plant. 

 Yet it appears from his own statement that he had the patience 

 to puzzle out the name, and was able to identify the plant by 

 comparing it with a series of Arenarias described in his herbal. 

 Surely this is very creditable to our correspondent who sent the 

 notice for publication. 



But the amount of Mr. John Sim^s offences against botanical 

 geography is not yet told. Listen, most courteous reader ! 

 " In the same periodical for November then following/' — -mark 

 the accuracy of the statement and the elegancy of the phraseo- 

 logy, — " Mr. J. S. records " another " botanical ramble, made to 

 the hill of Moucrieffe, where he discovers Scrophularia vernalis, 

 Anchusa sempervirens, and other garden species which no geo- 

 graphical botanist believes to be native in Scotland." This is 

 the head and front of Mr. Sim's offendings. If they had been 

 found by Mr. Watson in a locality where they had not hitlierto 

 been noticed, he would have taken the credit of the discovery. 



