Hfoss : ( *hanges in the Halifax Flora, 



Lamium Galeobdolon, 1841. Merenrialis porennis, 1S44. 



Pl&ntagO major, 1S44. I'rlio.i dioiea, 1 St»7« 



Plantago lanceolata, 1S44. ramus communis, 1831. 



Rumcx obtusifolius, iS ; |. Allium ursinum, iSdj. 



Rumex Acetosa, 1844. 

 This list, lengthy though it is, contains no trees, no shrubs, 

 no rushes, no sedges, no grasses ; and species in any sense 



'critical' arc sedulously omitted. Which all goes to show the 

 unwisdom of attaching significance to the absence of a plant 

 from an incomplete list ; antl one cannot help expressing surprise 

 that Such an elementary pons asinorum should not have been 

 safe!) crossed by field botanists of" wide and varied experience. 

 Some ot the dates, e.g., Hypoclucris radical//, 1S87, further 

 suggest that it is always dangerous (pace Mr. Corbett fiol) to 

 argue safely from mere absence of record. 



It in highly regrettable that anyone should have felt called upon 

 to ' defend ' Bolton: it would be more profitable to endeavour 

 to understand him. Bolton stands in no need of defenders, 

 though it is by no means eas) to assess his Phanerogamic work. 

 In my opinion the so-called 'defence' [9] of Bolton was simply 

 a paragraph taken from the ' Rejoinder,' and was really a 

 'defence' of individual views of Bolton. 



It must be further pointed out that if any substitution of 

 CE. jistulosa by Qi. crocata has occurred in Halifax, it must have 

 taken place between 1775 and 1 8 1 5 ; for by the latter date 

 Ley land [4] had commenced to arrange and date his herbarium. 

 Xow Leyland nowhere records CE. Jistulosa, while he has a local 

 specimen of CE. crocata. Again Baines [5] in 1844 states that 

 CE. crocata is found 1 near Halifax, but throughout the whole of 

 that extensive parish the preceding species [i.e., CE. crocata] 

 does not occur.' This remarkable statement shows that Baines 

 (or more probably the Halifax botanist, probably Gibson, who 

 supplied him with the information, for there is evidence to show 

 that Baines himself did not use Bolton's list) knew of Bolton's 

 record, and thus early in the century had arrived at the opinion 

 that the record for CE. Jistulosa could not be accepted. 



To me it is not merely surprising, it is altogether inexplic- 

 able, that there should be such remarkable and staggering 

 changes in the Halifax flora from 1775 to 181 5, and that from 

 181 5 onwards these changes should become quite commonplace 

 and simple of explanation, more especially when we remember 

 that it is in the latter period that the greater changes of plant 

 environment have taken place. I leave it to defenders of 



Naturalist, 



