240 CYNOGLOSSUM SYLVATICUM. [AugUSt, 



laborious botanist have not been seen where he said or wrote that 

 they were once seen^ is the testimony of living witnesses to the 

 fact to be repudiated ? 



Anybody might be mistaken about the duration of the plant, 

 but nobody could be mistaken about the other question, viz. its 

 spontaneous or native growth ; for I assert that in this instance 

 these terms are synonymous in this neighbourhood. 



It is quite possible, it is even probable, that no one of the 

 authors or compilers of our very recent Floras ever collected C. 

 sylvaticum near Perth, or possesses in his herbarium a specimen 

 from that locality. But would' it be just, from this assumed fact, 

 to infer that C. sylvaticum does not exist in Scotland? Is the 

 testimony of Sir W. J. Hooker, who admits it, unquestioned, 

 among the Scottish plants enumerated, described, and localized 

 in his ' Flora of Scotland ' of no weight ? A learned professor, 

 with a formidable tail of amateur and pupil botanists, may make 

 a raid into even a rich locality, and neither carry off all the spoil 

 nor even detect all the botanical rarities. Surely this will not be 

 disputed. Every botanist is not expected to see every plant in 

 every station where it has been seen by some local observer. A 

 single pair of eyes and a single pair of legs, however well 

 trained and athletic, are not expected to accomplish this feat. 

 Our knowledge of things would be very scanty, if limited by the 

 results of ouv own experience and observation. 



In the most recent work on the British plants, the existence of 

 C. sylvaticum as a production of Scotland is unceremoniously 

 denied — not because its non-existence there was the result of the 

 experience of the learned author of this useful work, but because 

 it has of late been fashionable to decry the discoveries of the late 

 George Don. The author of this much-belauded handbook, in 

 which the plants are traced not only through the isle of Britain, 

 but also all over the continents of Europe, America, etc., knows 

 more about the distribution of our native plants abroad than at 

 home. There are men of deep insight into the affairs of others 

 who do not know what is doing about their own firesides. This 

 author can learnedly state the range of the British species through- 

 out the world, knows their appearances, associations, and eco- 

 nomy on the hills and in the vales of Scandinavia and Helvetia, 

 and is at the same time unacquainted with their geography and 

 statistics within the bounds of the United Kingdom, in that small 



