INTRODUCTION. XXIX 



Edinburgh Society. Either by herself, or by the distributor of 

 the latter society, a Welsh specimen of Potentilla rupestris had 

 been substituted for a Scottish specimen of Potentilla alpestris. 

 The lady alluded to certainly distributed numerous specimens 

 of other plants which had assuredly never been gathered in the 

 localities written on their labels, and several of these apparently 

 had come to her hands through the Botanical Society of 

 Edinburgh. Her labels will be ignored in this book. 



The special case under allusion, be it kept in recollection, is 

 that of an extensive British herbarium, gradually collected 

 together during a period of forty years and upwards, and 

 contributed to by botanists of widely unequal age and botanical 

 experience, and whose own labels are usually glued down with 

 the specimens. These are circumstances tending much to 

 increase the discrepancies of nomenclature, and to endanger 

 mistakes in consulting the herbarium. Unless a posthumous 

 inspector of it be duly prepared to examine the specimens and 

 labels with constant reference to the received views about 

 species and their nomenclature, currently in use at and before 

 its many dates, he will himself almost inevitably misread 

 differences of name into errors of name. And further, on 

 seeing various specimens preserved there positively under 

 erroneous names, and not aware that in most of such 

 instances the misnomers were actually the chief inducement to 

 preserve the specimens, he may choose to attribute to igno- 

 rance on the part of the former owner of the herbarium, what 

 would be more truly attributable to the imperfect character of 

 his own acquaintance with that owner's motives, or with the 

 past history of the species. A conscientious inspector might 

 be unwittingly misled in such instances. An unscrupulous one 

 might very willingly be so, in order to get a plausible oppor- 

 tunity for announcing pretended corrections, or for showing off 

 his own detective cleverness. To suggest this latter supposition, 

 is expressing a low estimate of the consciences of some of the 

 botanists who have most distinguished themselves by raking up 



