ADDITIONAL NOTES, ETC. 377 



still branded as a non-British species, in the last edition 

 of the British Flora, while the far more questionable 

 species of Helleborus are given there as unchallenged 

 natives. What does this random marking prove ? Not a 

 philosophic doubt arising from due research or inquiry, I 

 fear, but only the accuracy of an opinion expressed in this 

 present volume, page 5, to the effect, that the attention of 

 Author and Editor of the British Flora, has been so far 

 and so long withdi'awn from British botany, that their 

 opinions must now be formed on imperfect knowledge, 

 when relating specially to the botany of Britam ; and, 

 consequently, that they cannot be deemed authoritative. 



32. Delphinium Consolida, vol. i. p. 97. 



The discrepancy between the reports of Mr. Flower and 

 Mr. Lees, relative to the existence of this plant on the 

 shores of Swansea bay, may perhaps be accounted for by 

 an observation from Mr. Joseph Woods, in Phytologist iii. 

 1060, where he writes that, " The corporation of Swansea, 

 it seems, sometimes take turf from the sand-hills and 

 replace the soil with some they want to get rid of from 

 the neighboui'hood of the town, and in these spots I no- 

 ticed Calendida officinalis, Koniga maritima. Delphinium 

 Consolida, a cultivated Pimpinella, and other garden 

 plants." This passage suggests a commentary on the 

 value of Mr. Lees's reports about finding ordinary garden 

 j)lants " truly wild," and will so far explain my own evi- 

 dent reluctance to rely upon the unconfirmed rei)oi*ts or 

 opinions of Mr. Lees, in reference to the nativity of species 

 or the genuineness of stations. The reluctance does not 

 arise from distrust of that gentleman's sincerity and good 

 faith, but from doubts of the botanist's circumspection 

 and exactness. I camiot yet enter this plant even as an 

 established ' Colonist ' in South Wales, much less as a 

 true native. 



VOL. ni. 3 c 



