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CHANGES IN THE HALIFAX FLORA 

 DURING THE LAST CENTURY AND A QUARTER. 



SECOND PAPER. 



C. E. MOSS, B.Sc, 

 Brut on, Somersetshire, late of Halifax. 



Last June in this magazine I discussed the ' Changes in the 

 Halifax Flora during the last Century and a Quarter' [8]. It 

 appears to be necessary to call attention to the limitations, 

 both as to time and place, of the conclusions there drawn. The 

 particular place was chosen because of the opportunities I had 

 had of studying its present flora both in the field and in the 

 records of the local scientific society, and also its past flora as 

 witnessed by lists and herbaria. The particular time was 

 chosen because a century and a quarter ago the first representa- 

 tive list of Halifax plants was published [3]. It was necessary 

 to have some such list to start from, or one could not otherwise 

 be certain of the plants comprising the Halifax flora so far back 

 as 1775. But old lists have many pitfalls ; and Bolton's is no 

 exception to this rule. Halifax contains over six hundred 

 vascular plants : Bolton recorded two hundred. It was there- 

 fore necessary to give briefly some notions of the principles 

 which appeared to guide him in his selection of this limited 

 number, and also to point out a few errors which he undoubtedly 

 made ; otherwise it would have been impossible to draw sound 

 inferences respecting any floristic changes. Such a procedure 

 cannot fairly be described as depreciating Bolton. I feel certain 

 that if such a lover of exactitude as Bolton were still amongst 

 us he would welcome honest criticism, and more particularly so 

 in regard to the least successful of his botanical studies, viz., 

 his Phanerogamic work.* It is not good reasoning to say 

 that because his Cryptogamic work, which was largely original, 

 was sound, that therefore his Phanerogamic work, where he 

 followed other workers, was also accurate. I remember dis- 

 cussing Bolton with the late Mr. Soppitt, who said that while 

 he had nothing but admiration for Bolton in regard to most of 

 his work, yet held that there was no evidence of his ever 

 having been a reliable Phanerogamic botanist. For myself, the 

 strongest argument against the anonymous list of plants in 



* I do not here include his water-colour drawing's of flowering- plants : 

 these are beyond my province. 

 1901 April 1. 



