PERSONAL AUTHORITIES. 



589 



curtailed in some other mode. Between these extremes there 

 is room for a good deal of diversity. 



4. The label sent with an actual specimen is truly a manuscript 

 note also, although the evidence yielded is rather different ; that 

 is, through the receiver getting the option of endorsing the 

 name of the plant, and so accepting on faith its locality only, 

 not both name and place. If specimen and label have come 

 direct from the collector to the compiler, the probability of 

 correctness may be held very great. A fairly careful collector 

 seldom mislocalizes a plant ; and in case of any difference of 

 view, as to the right name of the plant, some further communi- 

 cation will usually have passed between them, tending to settle 

 the name correctly. But it should be noted here, that " sp." is 

 made to cover other specimens besides those that may remain 

 still within reach ; including, not present herbarium specimens 

 only, but also others which have passed through hand for tem- 

 porary inspection ; and the examination may have chanced 

 many years ago in some instances, when the compiler was 

 younger and less practised. At first, it was in thought to dis- 

 tinguish them by using " dp." instead of " sp." in cases where 

 the specimens themselves had not been retained so as to allow 

 re-examination at present dates. This idea was rather reluctantly 

 given up, lest its practical adoption should lead to an increase 

 of misprints. 



5. Specimens may have passed through intermediate hands 

 between collector and compiler : each such transfer tending to 

 increase the list of errors. Specimens occasionally get 

 mingled ; and labels get misplaced to wrong specimens. Some 

 collectors habitually omit to write their own names on their 

 labels ; so that the locality soon becomes anonymous, certified 

 by nobody in particular, and an intermediate distributor may 

 then become credited with the locality. In re-writing labels 

 some distributors put only their own names on them, omitting 

 those of the actual collectors ; thus virtually making themselves 

 false testifiers to localities never really seen by them. That 



