INTRODUCTOKY OBSERVATIONS. 9 



then not bear out tlie inferences drawn from tliem by 

 himself. The primary objection to such inferences is 

 shortly this. The facts are adduced to support the idea 

 of a former continental expansion to the south-westward, 

 the extent of which would necessarily have induced a 

 continental climate ; that is, one utterly unsuitable to 

 the existence of those insular and subalpine species of 

 Ericacece and Saxifragce, ada]3ted only to the damp and 

 equable climates in which they now live. 



Edward Forbes is no more. The Author of this 

 Cybele will soon be the same. But now, on looking 

 back to the Appendix at the end of the First Volume, he 

 finds scarcely a word there which he wishes unprinted ; 

 because he fully believes that the manner in which the 

 Essay of Mr. Forbes was got up is correctly stated 

 there ; and because its reckless hardihood of assertion, in 

 regard to facts, was eminently calculated to mislead 

 those scientific men, interested in the subject, who were 

 not specially familiar with vegetable distribution in the 

 British Islands and neighbouring portions of the Contir 

 nent, and also with the climatal adaptations of the spe? 

 cies cited. Without that special familiarity no one can 

 be properly prepared to give a sound opinion in the matr 

 ter. On this account, when we see a Botanist of the 

 richly merited reputation of Dr. J. D. Hooker, writing of 

 Forbes's essay in terms of unqualified approval, we 

 should admire his boldness more than his philosophic 

 caution. (See Flora Indica, by Hooker and Thomson, 

 volume first, page 41.) 



To revert to sober facts, from that digression towards 



the regions of " ingenious " hypothesis. It has akeady 



been explained in volume third, page second, that the 



Cybele Britannica must be kept within a comparatively 



VOL. IV. G 



