

1861.] ARENARIA BALEARICA. 55 



We will not answer for the creed of geographical botanists, 

 for if like Mr. Watson's belief, it is a very loose one ; but as we 

 do not knoAV what it is, and have never yet heard that they have 

 any general formula of faith in plant-distribution, the less said 

 about it the better. But we can say that, so far as we know, 

 the plants above-named, viz. the Anchusa and the Scrophulai'ia, 

 are as much, if not more, wild in Scotland as or than in England, 

 and probably as in France to the bargain. We will present 

 botanico-geographers with this fact, and wish it may do them 

 much good. 



We hope our readers will now acquit the Editor of the ' Phy- 

 tologist '" of both intentional and ignorant mistakes ; and con- 

 sequently he expects not merely a verdict of acquittal, but a 

 finding of wilful misrepresentation against his accuser. 



But he hopes they will not be discharged by the judge until 

 the Avriter's opinions about wild and tame plants has been sub- 

 mitted to them, and in these his opinions he will neither com- 

 promise the ' Phytologist ' nor its Editor. He will merely give 

 his opinion, and will support it both by evidence and illustration. 



It may be taken for granted, by the general consent of all 

 mankind, botanists not excepted, that all plants, like all animals,are 

 divisible into two classes, ivild and tame. There may be, indeed 

 there are, a few of both animate and sentient beings that are both 

 tame and wild. The ass is an example among beasts, and the 

 Crab among plants. As a logician may say, every herb and animal 

 which is not tame is wild, and every one which is not wild is tame, 

 with the exception of the small intermediate class which assumes 

 both these distinctive characters. 



From these premises it is inferred that as the Arenaria baleari- 

 ca is not a tame or cultivated plant, nor a plant having an inter- 

 mediate character — it is a wild plant. It can scarcely be called an 

 escape from cultivation, for it belongs to a genus quite unsuited 

 for the practice of the florist's art. That it grows on a tool- 

 house is no valid reason for denying its ivildness ; the Chickweed 

 and Groundsel grow on garden- walls, and sometimes among the 

 choicest flowers, and their ivildness is uncontested. It is not 

 urged against its claims to spontaneity, if not to nativity, that it 

 was planted on the tool-house, or that it has become semi-natu- 

 ralized like the Snapdragon. This latter plant has existed among 

 us for centuries, probably for thousands of years ; the Arenaria, 



