1859.] ADDRESS OP THE EDITOR. 5 



genera? Is not eveiy species an adequate representative of a 

 genus, and every genus a sufficient representative of an order ? 



The man who bravely grapples with these knotty problems and 

 who also brings to their solution a well-trained mind accustomed 

 to observe^ to combine, and distinguish ; who is endowed with a 

 sound judgment, patient endurance, a proper estimation of the 

 labours of his predecessors in the same field, deserves encourage- 

 ment at least, and his labours are entitled to the respectful con- 

 sideration and admiration of all who are able to appreciate know- 

 ledge and ingenuity. Neglect, faint praise, sly sneers, and direct 

 hostility, are not the way to encourage self-devoted students to 

 labour in the too often unproductive fields of scientific investi- 

 gation. 



But our readers' patience had need to be as great as we hope 

 their charity is, or they would not endure this dry lecture on a 

 very barren theme; there is now something to be told which 

 concerns ourselves, i. e. the writer and those for whose behoof he 

 is writing. " Charity begins at home ;" the adage was not for- 

 gotten. Our sympathies are, in the first place, engrossed by 

 those who sympathize with us, viz. our friends, families, and 

 firesides ; but our charities are not confined to home and its con- 

 stituents; they embrace more remote connectious, vide our notice 

 of Professor Agardh's learned volume ; and finally, they should 

 comprehend the entire human race; " ?iomo sum/' said the sage, — 

 or, keeping up the metaphor, '^homines sumus/' — " humani nihil 

 a me alienum puto :" the plural form must be abandoned. 



In the first place, it is proper to inform our patient, loving 

 readers, as the old preface-makers very properly called those 

 who dipped into their long learned preambles, that a recom- 

 mendation by one of our very earliest contributors and firmest 

 friends has been now long under consideration, viz. that the 

 ' Phytologist' should, for the sake of more easy reference, be com- 

 pleted in a year ; or that the pagination should not run on for 

 twenty months, or two years, or any other indefinite period, as 

 in our last and previous volumes of the New Series. He proposes 

 that it should not extend beyond the twelve months; but should 

 close with the closing of the year. In order to give general satis- 

 faction, the following plan is proposed for the consideration of 

 the purchasers of the work, viz. to provide a title, contents, and 

 index, for the twelve numbers that will appear between January 



