on jtotanu (chieflg (geographical), 



By the Rev. R. P. MURRAY, M.A., P.L.S. 



ERY little, probably, now remains to be done for 

 Dorset botany, so far as mere list-making is 

 concerned (I am referring only to phanerogams). 

 We already possess our President's "Flora of 

 Dorset," and we are looking forward to a second 

 and corrected edition. But let no one tbink that 

 the work is done when the list has been made, or that the interest 

 is exhausted. Rather, it is just beginning. Merely to know the 

 Latin name of a plant is a small thing ; to be cognisant of its 

 present geographical distribution is not much ; and these things can 

 be learnt from the "manuals" and "Floras" which have lately 

 become so numerous. They are our grammars and our dictionaries. 

 They are indispensable, no doubt, in enabling us to read our 

 particular volume of the Book of Nature, but let us not mistake 

 them for the book itself. 



Let us assume, then, that we possess a competent elementary 

 knowledge of the botany of our immediate neighbourhood ; in 

 other words, that we know what materials are at our command 

 with which to try and penetrate into some of Nature's secrets. 

 "What can we do 1 I would answer : Study structure and environ- 

 ment, and study history. For plants and animals have their 



