204. AN ADDRESS BY THE EDITORS. 
We have heard, although we hope it is not true, that there is 
a trace of donnishness among the professors and practitioners 
of botanical and other sciences. We do not say that this is the 
case ; but if it be, we are anxious to prevent the charge being justly 
laid at our door. In another place we have given our opinions 
very candidly on this subject, and here we will only remark that 
all unnecessary use of technicalities is pro tanto a drag upon 
science. We profess to know the difference between affected-pue- 
rilities and manly simplicity. We remember what was said of 
old by one of the facillimé principes of style, who enjoms on the 
Pisoes to write only on such subjects as they knew: Sumite ma- 
teriam equam viribus. We profess “not to go beyond our depth;” 
and never to employ a learned or a scientific word or phrase if a 
common word or a current expression will express our meaning | 
with sufficient brevity, clearness, and force. We know technicali- 
ties are often unavoidable, but when they can be avoided, we think 
it both a mark of good nature as well as good manners to do so. 
Something still remains to be said about the publication of 
Descriptive British Botany. Among botanists there is a preva- 
lent feeling that we have already as much information about our 
native plants as we require, and this no doubt is true if we mean 
only to supply the wants of botanists. This however is not our aim. 
We write for the million, for those who are not botanists, but who 
may be induced to become so by rendering the acquirement of the 
science less onerous and expensive. We most decidedly assert that 
the portion of Descriptive Botany, publishing in the ‘ Phytologist,’ 
is not meant to come into competition with the valuable and 
learned works of Hooker and Arnott, Babington, Macgillivray, 
Steele, Macreight, etc. Our labours may however be of some ad- 
vantage even to those who have all these eminent works im their 
possession. But we write for a larger circle of readers and stu- 
dents than these famous men did. Our work will be, as it ought 
to be, of a more comprehensive nature than the above-mentioned 
works. There is of course no intention of reproducing the la- 
bours of our predecessors, eminent though they be, nor even an 
olla podrida, or hash, of the whole. We trust that there still exist 
sufficient materials for the compilation of as original a work as 
the subject will admit of, It has often been asked, why are we 
not satisfied with the characters already drawn up for the diseri- 
mination or identification of species, genera, and orders? We reply, 
