44. COMPOSITiE, 37 



kirk and Patrick may be both correct, and the only error 

 be that of Hooker, in giving generality to a strictly local 

 fact. I have gone a little into detail here, because the ex- 

 ample is a very suitable one for exhibiting the uncertainty 

 which pervades our published records about the localities 

 and distribution of species ; and also, I fear, it must be 

 added to the many examples which I have found, of authors 

 republishing the observations of their predecessors, not 

 only without acknowledgment, but even in terras which 

 imply that they are truly recording their own original ob- 

 servations, — a procedure which, as appears to my mind, is 

 altogether indefensible, whether we look to it as a question 

 of truth and justice, or whether we regard it only in its 

 evident tendency to diffuse and perpetuate error along 

 with fact. 



548. Leontodon hirtum, Linn. 



Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 * 13 14 15. 



South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Kent. 



North limit in Fife, and about Glasgow. 



Estimate of provinces 15. Estimate of counties 60. 



Latitude 50 — 56. English type of distribution. 



Agrarian region. Inferagrarian — Midagrarian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 100 or 200 yards, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperature 52 — 47. 



Native. Pascual, &c. Neither the Lake nor the West 

 Lowland province would seem very unlikely for the present 

 species. But it appears to be decidedly scarce or local in 

 Scotland, although so very abundant over a large part of 

 England. Mr. W. Gardiner publishes it (Phytologist, i. 

 p. 471) as having been found by himself on Sluich-an- 



