in. INTKODUCED SPECIES. 91 



stops short of enumerating all the situations in which 

 given species occur, is it not highly probable that other 

 writers, whose object was rather descriptive than geo- 

 graphical botanj', have frequentl}-^ done the same ? And 

 the doubt implied by the question seems to be especially 

 needful with regard to those authors who wrote in j-ears 

 long past, when such matters were less attended to than 

 is the case in our own time ? Even yet they are very 

 imperfectl}^ attended to ; the situations of plants being 

 often stated incorrectly, and very often incompletely. 



Omissions are perhaps moi'e usual in Floras relating 

 to countries of large extent. Authors of very local 

 Floras not seldom err in a contrary direction, bj^ tran- 

 scribing from larger works, and not sufficientl}' consider- 

 ing whether the transcribed situations do truly indicate 

 those of their own locality. Dr. Bromfield's Flora 

 Vectensis is very faulty in this respect ; the author re- 

 l^eatedly stating situations for the species, such as they 

 do not inhabit within the limits of his Flora ; although it 

 may be true that elsewhere, as in other parts of England 

 or the Continent, he might have seen them in such situa- 

 ations. Examples where the situations of growth, as 

 indicated in the Flora Vectensis, cannot be those of the 

 Isle of Wight solely and exclusively, may be seen by 

 reference to those given for Thlasjn arvense, Erodium 

 moschatam, Sedum album, Atropa Belladonna, Mentha 

 sylvestris, Teucr'mm Chamcedrys, &c. And yet M. De 

 Candolle has relied much upon the statements and argu- 

 ments of the late Dr. Bromfield, when judging about the 

 nativity of species in Britain. It is certainly true that 

 Dr. Bromfield wished and endeavoured to be accurate, 

 and that he had a fair api)reciation of what is required in 

 geographical botany. But it has previously been re- 

 marked, that the character of his intellect was far from 



