BOOK EECOBDS. 601 



one hundred of such records still unconfirmed; and of these 

 one-half will he errors. 



It is this tendency in the residue to become more and more a 

 mere mass of inaccuracies and uncertainties, which renders it so 

 little desirable to go on repeating them as facts, and so much 

 more desirable to rely upon recent records, or still more recent 

 unpublished observations ; in which the per-centage of errors is 

 Hkely to be a mere fraction, as against the increasingly large 

 per-centage certain to occur in the residue of the old records. 



But supposing the object of a botanical writer to be almost 

 entirely different ; not to be that of ascertaining the present 

 areas and localities of plants, with the view, inter alia, of com- 

 paring one county with another, or contrasting one against all ; 

 but rather to trace out the history of certain plants within any 

 given county, the length of time they have been known or 

 believed. to grow there, and whether more or less plentifully, etc. 

 — then of course it is found needful to trace back to the oldest 

 records, and to connect them as accurately as may be with what 

 is now seen. The local history of plants has an interest of its 

 own quite apart from larger views ; and it has also some bearing 

 on present areas of distribution. But actual distribution, not 

 history, is the main object of this present work ; and to this end 

 the best evidence is found in what we see with our own eyes; 

 that which we accept on trust because we find it printed in old 

 books, is evidence of a very inferior kind ; — the former is real 

 knowledge, the latter is now at best only a belief. 



Unfortunately, there is a dangerous drawback to the modem 

 superiority contended for, and indisputable in the main. Along 

 with the increase in facilities for acquiring an accurate know- 

 ledge of plants, there has been a large increase also in the 

 facilities afforded for inexperienced and superficial botanists 

 prematurely to rush into print, and to add their own blunders to 

 swell the accumulating stores, still descending for the perplexity 

 and vexation of our successors. The journals, the reports of 

 provincial societies, the local floras, each and all help in this 



4 H 



