2 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



bee and see ; not short, as in the words hell and sell. He 

 cites Virgil, in whose hexameters the long pronunciation 

 is clearly required, thus, " alma Cybele ; " and notwith- 

 standing the short " e " in the original Greek name 

 Kubele. Readers will decide for themselves. Making 

 the first vowel short, and the final vowel long, they 

 may sound the intermediate one long or short as they 

 deem best. 



It was remarked in volume third, pages 3 and 4, that 

 the three successive volumes of the Cybele Biitannica 

 corresponded, by their several dates, with the three suc- 

 cessive editions of The London Catalogue of British 

 Plants and of Bah'ingtons Manual of British Botany. 

 Fourth and Fifth editions of the Catalogue, and a Fourth 

 edition of the Manual, have been since published ; and 

 this Fourth volume of the Cybele will accordingly bear 

 some reference to the corresponding later editions of the 

 two works mentioned. For the most part, however, the 

 names of plants used in this fourth volume will be those 

 given in the Index, as printed in the third volume. And 

 contrary to the practice followed in the Manual, the ten- 

 dency of a work such as the Cybele must be towards 

 a combination, rather than towards a severance of uncer- 

 tain species. In subdividing a species which has been 

 long recognized and treated as single, and the notices 

 about which have accordingly been recorded under a 

 single name, it is seldom possible to subdivide also its 

 recorded localities, so as to assign them correctly to the 

 several sub-species. Following the Manual, the British 

 species thus situate would now be reckoned by scores, or 

 even by hundreds. In various instances those subdivi- 

 sions are probably correct; and such " segregate " species 

 will here be adopted and adhered to, — at any rate, so far 



