8 ADDRESS OF THE EDITOR. [January, 



the true with the false ; " vera falsis confudit." And hence it was 

 offensive to some who did not perceive that it was only a jocular 

 mode of warning readers not to pin their faith on every printed 

 statement. 



Possibly our correspondent may have intended o perpetrate a 

 small pleasantry, or to make an experiment on the credulity of 

 the Editor, who is like a wily old fox, not to be caught in such 

 a clumsily-set and ill-baited traja. But whatever may have been 

 the object of our contributor, the article was sent to the press 

 neither to mislead nor to mystify, but simply to warn readers 

 not to place implicit confidence in all that appears in print, 

 whether it may originate with the clever compiler or author of 

 ' Things not Generally Known,' or with the cleverer author of 

 the 'Vestiges of Creation.' That it obtained universal credit 

 with our brethren of the Fourth Estate is a fact, not a great one, 

 but an important one. No one who knows the ' Phytologist' will 

 believe that the doctrines so eloquently expounded in the ' Ves- 

 tiges of Creation,' and which were generally known in late times 

 by the term Vestigianism, will find much favour in our sight. 

 They will find few advocates among our contributors. 



The " Elowers of the Olden time " is another short paragraph 

 taken from a contemporary publication, entitled ' A History of 

 Progress,' and from which it does not appear that botany has 

 made great progress. The writer of the chapter on our native 

 and introduced plants, or the editor of the ' History of Progress,' 

 does not appear to have made much progress in his botanical 

 studies. Svirely no reader of the ' Phytologist ' is so green as to 

 believe that the Honeysuckle of our woods and hedges is an in- 

 troduced plant ! It has always been esteemed, even by the most 

 fastidious oi purists, as one of the most orthodox or genuine ab- 

 original productions of our native land. Will the historian of 

 Progress tell us when it was introduced ? 



The dispute about the change of the Wild or Sea Cabbage, 

 Brassica oleracea, into Kail, Cauliflower, Broccoli, etc., or the 

 escape of the cultivated plant, and its establishment on maritime 

 cliffs, and subsequent degeneration into the Sea Cabbage, must 

 for the present be considered as one of the things or facts not 

 generally known, or rather a something about which there is not 

 a unanimity of judgment among the writers of the 'Phytologist.' 

 But on this point there is some vacillation in other quarters ; 



