I860.] CYNOGLOSSUM SYLVATICUM. 241 



portion of the world wherein both he and the subjects of his 

 comprehensive descriptions dwell. 



It would be very unjust to the compilers of our modern 

 British Floras to begrudge them their hard-earned meed of praise 

 for giving us such enlarged and correct notions about plants, their 

 distinctions, geographical and geognostic relations, etc., but they 

 need not be so offensively dogmatical and positive about the range 

 and nativity of species as they are. Instead of offering them- 

 selves as expounders and interpreters of Nature, — the true office 

 of naturalists, — some audaciously presume to lay down principles 

 of classification, description, etc., so outrageous and so utterly 

 subversive of the results of history and observation, that natural 

 science is in danger of becoming a subject for the gibes and scorn 

 of small witlings and malevolent sneerers. 



Within the last few years plants have been discovered in the 

 vicinity of Perth which have grown there for hundreds, probably 

 for thousands, of years, but which were never observed, or at all 

 events they were not recorded, till very recently. Linncea borealis, 

 Sedum album, and S. dasyphyllum, are quoted from the ' Phyto- 

 logist^ as examples. 



In conclusion, the following hint or counsel is deferentially 

 offered to all the possessors of British Floras. They should prize 

 these productions; they cost their authors much thought and 

 labour, and they are very useful* to those who know how to use 

 them; they are only intended as helps, not as authorities from 

 whose judgment there is no appeal. Implicit reliance is not to 

 be placed on them, for although it must be admitted that their 

 authors did the best they could, still they are fallible. Great 

 botanists, as well as other great men, are liable to the frailties 

 which beset all alike ; they cannot claim complete exemption from 

 the common lot of humanity. 



Note. — A specimen, perhaps two, of C sylvaticum arrived here from 

 Mr. Sim, and there can be no doubt about these individuals : they were 

 'not biennial, but perennial. It is beheved that they have both ceased to 

 exist as Hving plants, or indeed as plants in any state. They did not re- 

 cover their long journey of 480 miles, and the slugs took a liking to their 

 half-dead leaves, and they are now dead and gone. The plant sent to 

 Chelsea is or was certainly perennial. There can be no mistake about this 

 point. It may be granted also that the colony of plants from among 



N. S. VOL. IV. 2 I 



