FOSSIL AND EECENT BOTANY 213 
or species, for the majority of the genera of some of the 
tribes of coal plants are merely names applied to individual 
plants, sometimes of the same plant ; thus Calamites are 
all stems, Lepidodendron all branches, Lepidostrobus all 
cones. 
[After this] I took to recent Botany, crossing and re- 
crossing from the village to the heart of the forest, to observe 
what difference in the native vegetation may occur in 
progressing from New to Old red sandstone, then Mt. Lime- 
stone, and lastly the sandstone of the coal ; all these rocks 
lie here in parallel stripes as it were. The scenery was 
most beautiful, and from some of the hills I caught sights 
of the Sugar Loaf, Garway, Graig ^ and the long back of 
the Black Mountains. 
One enjoys so much the sight of familiar objects in the 
new aspect they wear when viewed from other points than 
those we have been accustomed to. Another year I hope 
to take your part of the country, though I do not expect 
there are many rare plants there, still as my Master wants 
the Botanical features of each soil, I will condescend to 
accommodate him when my other interests suit my duties. 
This will appear possibly a curious way of doing duty, but 
Forbes and I try to drum into Sir H. the dogma, that all 
scientific work is duty, whether he may be able to appreciate 
the immediate bearing of its results on the Geol. Survey 
or no. 
But this British Botany had to give way to the Fossil 
Botany at the Geological Survey ; it was impossible to deal 
with both. However, the latter had the greater attraction 
in the novelty and interest of the field, and the need for per- 
fecting a knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Still there 
was plenty to be done in British Botany, and later he fulfilled 
Bentham's word that the work ought to be done, despite the 
opposition which might be expected from those who already 
occupied the field. 
The winter and early spring of 1846-7 are filled up in part 
with arranging the autumn's collection of fossils and preparing 
1 These hills, familiar points in the landscape around Pontrilas, called up 
many recollections of the Benthama. 
VOL. I * P 
