PERSONAL AUTHORITIES. 593 



different grounds for rejecting the reports or records of botanical 

 collectors. The first and most frequent is want of confidence in 

 their botanical discrimination, chiefly in regard to the so-called 

 "critical" species. The other and less frequent is a want of 

 confidence in their moral good faith. 



The instances are very few, apparently, in which botanists 

 have deliberately sown plants in order to discover them after- 

 wards, or have resorted to any direct deceptions otherwise ; but 

 the instances of indirect or careless deceptions are unfortunately 

 not few in number, and are various in kind. For instance, the 

 frequent suppression of circumstances which would tell against 

 the nativity of plants in places where found ; also the careless 

 trick of labelling specimens as if really picked in certain 

 localities, where the same species is supposed to grow, although 

 the labelled specimens were not themselves picked there. 



In the General list of Contributors the names are followed by 

 the nos. of the counties with which they were connected as 

 simple surnames. This will serve to identify and distinguish 

 the personal authorities. But only few of the names which are 

 quoted within inverted commas or at second-hand from books, 

 have been included in the General List ; that list being intended 

 to shew and explain the personal authorities, as taken from 

 manuscript papers or labels in the compiler's own possession, not 

 book authorities equally open to all enquirers. 



4 ft 



