INTKODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 7 



work, — ^we sliouM have now known far better on what 

 records to rely, and in whose accuracy and fidelity to 

 place our trust. 



Nor is it at all unlikely, that much consequent im- 

 provement, with increased exactness and truth, would 

 have been introduced into many of the local and general 

 Floras of Britain, which have been subsequently printed; 

 — rather, perhaps, there would have appeared other and 

 more philosophical writings, instead of several of those 

 Floras. One great benefit would have been found in a 

 more early and decided check, given to that injurious 

 tendency of English botanists, to swell out their local 

 lists by the names of species improperly enumerated 

 among the native plants of their locality ; and too usu- 

 ally without any candid or sufficient explanation of the 

 circumstances under which they were observed there. 



A succeeding generation will see whether the present 

 era is the commencement of better practices. There are 

 not wanting some indications which appear to suggest 

 that it is so. The Collectanea for a Flora of Moray took 

 the lead in rejecting and questioning the introduced spe- 

 cies of its district, on something like a sound and uni- 

 form principle. The Flora of Hertfordshire, and the 

 Supplement to the Flora of Yorkshii-e, are local examples 

 of advanced views as to the requirements of the topogra- 

 phical department of botanical science. The Manual of 

 British Botany is a decided improvement on its predeces- 

 sors, by the pains-taking care evinced to render it an 

 accurate account of the flora of this country, and to iden- 

 tify correctly its included species with those described in 

 similar works for adjacent countries. 



Neither ought the treatise by Edwai'd Forbes, on the 

 supposed origin and dates of the present flora of Bri- 

 tain, to be wholly condemned by those who are better 



