2 ADDRESS OP THE EDITOR. {January, 



Those who kindly point out slight errors or inaccuracies, 

 are most deserving of our special and heartiest thanks. All 

 such strictures the writers themselves will surely testify, have 

 been received with submission, and even with gratitude. These 

 corrections, if offered in kindness as well as in candour, are 

 a source of encouragement, as they are stimulants to energetic 

 exertion. They are more efficient inducements to an honest, 

 earnest performance of our duties, than the mere necessity of 

 labouring for our bread, or even the delight of being employed 

 in a pleasing and congenial labour. 



The Editor wishes implicitly to obey the apostolic injunction, 

 viz. "Owe uo man anything, but to love one another," while 

 he is conscious of his utter inability to discharge his obligations 

 to the contributors who supply him with material for this pub- 

 lication, and to the friends and readers who honour him with 

 their approval of the manner in which he performs his part 

 of the undertaking. As these services, contributions, and kind 

 feelings, are labours of love or manifestations of charity, they 

 are truly debts of gratitude, and are payable only in the same 

 currency, viz, benevolence, good wishes, and heartfelt thanks; 

 for the debt of love can never be paid, and the indebted one 

 must remain a debtor for ever. 



The past year has been a prosperous period; several fresh 

 contributors appear in our columns, and their articles will speak 

 for their authors. The ' Phytologist,' in her now mature age, 

 does not condescend to commend herself, or, in common and 

 proverbial parlance, to blow her own trumpet; she has become 

 wiser with increasing years, and leaves the superfluous work 

 of self-laudation to those who like it. A good word may be 

 offered for the past year without incurring the slightest suspicion 

 of sycophancy or of officious obsequiousness. 



Our anticipations of the new year are that the coming time 

 will be no worse than that Vi'hich is now to be numbered with 

 the past ; or, in other words, may the future be as good as its 

 predecessor. 



In this article, named " An Address," the liberty has been 

 granted, or taken for granted, of explaining certain matters 

 which have" occurred during the previous months ; also, of 

 answering certain questions which naturally arise out of the 



