INTRODUCTOEY EXPLANATIONS. 7 



adopt eagerly the spurious and doubtful sj)ecies of other 

 botanists, but also to add to their numbers himseK, to- 

 gether with a proneness to adopt or make unrequired 

 changes in nomenclatiu'e, — both tendencies being in their 

 consequences extremely troublesome to geogi'apliical bo- 

 tanists, who are so frequently engaged in comparing lists 

 of species together. The Author of the Cybele therefore 

 felt that it would be no wise course to tie himself to the 

 views and nomenclature of the Author of the Manual, 

 wliich then threatened to be so capricious and changeable. 



On the contrary, the inconveniences resulting from 

 changed names and spuriou.s species led him, in this work 

 and elsewhere, to resist several of those ill-judged inno- 

 vations both by ridicule and by reasons ; wliich together 

 have perhaps not been wholly ineffectual, howsoever 

 slowly and indirectly a practical admission of their just- 

 ness may have been rendered by subsequent second 

 changes and retrogressions. Still, the existence of those 

 preventing obstacles has always been regretted ; differ- 

 ences of nomenclature and arrangement being attended 

 with much inconvenience both to the readers and to the 

 writers of botanical works. 



This refers to the few who carry out their study of 

 botany into some degree of scientific result, and not to 

 the many who want a single descriptive work, only to learn 

 the names of plants, and no more. Dovibtless the greater 

 number of those who purchase a descriptive Flora, whe- 

 ther medical students or others, belong to the latter class ; 

 and for them one set of names does as well as another. 

 It is, for instance, of no importance while they are private 

 students only, whether they call a plant Cerastium tetran- 

 drum or Cerastium atrovirens, Hypericum dubium or 

 Hypericum maculatum, Atriplex hastata or Atriplex del- 

 toidea. But if they seek to communicate their know- 



