642 



" The discovery of these facts produced considerable astonishment, and the author 

 was led to consider what could have been the causes of so remarlcable a discrepancy. 

 The following appears to be the most probable explanation. It is well known that at 

 the close of the last centuiy Sir J. E. Smith became the fortunate possessor of the her- 

 barium of Linnaeus, and was thus enabled to ascertain, with very considerable accura- 

 cy, the British species which were known to that distinguished man, and to publish, 

 in the most improved form that he had given to his system, a remarkably complete and 

 excellent Flora of Britain. Then followed the long-continued separation of this coun- 

 try from France, and indeed from most of the European nations, by which we were al- 

 most completely prevented from observing the progress which botanical science was 

 making in other countries, and at the same time our own flora was continually receiv- 

 ing accessions of new plants which it was nearly impossible to identify with the species 

 detected and published in France and Germany. At the conclusion of the war we had 

 become so wedded to the system of Linnaeus, and it may even perhaps be allowable to 

 add, so well satisfied with our own proficiency, that, with the honourable exception of 

 Mr. Brown, there was at that time scarcely a botanist in Britain who took any inte- 

 rest or paid the least attention to the classification by Natural Orders which had been 

 adopted in France, and to the more minute and accurate examination of plants which 

 was caused by the employment of that philosophical arrangement. Let it not how- 

 ever be supposed that the author wishes at all to detract from the value of the Linnaean 

 system — a system which was considered by its author as merely a provisional arrange- 

 ment or kind of index to the known plants ; for no botanist has more strongly stated 

 the value of a natural classification than Linnaeus himself, — as he fully believes that 

 without some such artificial scheme by which newly discovered plants could be cata- 

 loo"ued for easy reference, the multitudinous species which distant countries have 

 supplied would long since have fonned so enormous and confused a mass as to have 

 reduced Botany to a state little better than that into which it had fallen at the eom- 

 mencement of the Linnaean era. 



" The publication of so complete and valuable a Linnaean work as the ' English 

 Flora,' greatly contributed to the permanency of this feeling, and accordingly we find 

 that at a veiy recent period working English botanists were unacquainted with any of 

 the more modern continental floras, and indeed even now many of those works are on- 

 ly known by name to the great mass of the cultivators of British Botany." — Pref. v. 



It now remains for us briefly to er quire which of the two works be- 

 fore us is the most likely to have the effect of enabling the student of 

 British Botany to take his stand by the side of the continental cultiva- 

 tors of the science, or at least to enable him to make some steps in ad- 

 vance of his present position. And here we feel that we are treading 

 on dangerous ground ; we feel that whatever is stamped with the au- 

 thority belonging to so illustrious a name as that of the author of the 

 well-known and widely circulated ' British Flora,' must be approach- 

 ed with caution, nay, almost with reverence ; and that no rude hands 

 ought to be laid on the structure he has raised. We should how- 

 ever be wanting in our duty as honest chroniclers, did we not state it 

 to be our opinion, and we state it with regret, that the fifth edition of 



