In finishing this genus, and closing the Gramina Britannica, I must now (though late) offer my
warmest acknowledgments to those gentlemen who have assisted my endeavours. Professor W illiams,
Oxford ; Dr. J. E. Smith ; Rev. Mr. Stuart, Lussj Thomas Velley, Esq. Rev. R. Relhanj Henry
Penneck, Esq. T. J. Woodward, Esq. the late Mr. Sole, * Bath ; Rev. H. Davies, Beaumaris ; Dr.
Stokes j Mr. L. Wiggj Mr. E. Robson, Darlington j Mr. Pitchford -, Mr. Brunton, jun. Rippon;
Rev. Mr. Swayne ; Mr. G. Don, Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh} Mr. J. Don, Cambridge} J. Crowe,
Esq. Mr. J. Salt, Sheffield} Mr. James Dickson} J. Howarth, Esq.Chelsea} and the Rev. J. Holmes,
St. Peter’s-college, Cambridge.
I must thank them for their liberality in answering my various enquiries; and for the permission
they afforded me to inspect their several collections : and had it not been for such encouragements,
the public would never have seen these delineations : whether their incitements have been beneficial,
or might have been spared, is not for me to determine.------And finally, to that Supreme Being,
whose mercy hath led his unseeing creature through all his various wanderings, be praise and adoration
! Whether I have trembled on the faithless bog—hung over the slippeiy margin of the unfathomed
lake—or climbed the precipice of alpine steeps, in all hath his Providence upheld me} under
the shadow o f his wings have I found protection, and hallowed be his name !
* Of this gentleman I may be permitted in passing, perhaps, to say a few words.—For a certain number of years
Mr. Sole was at the head of the botanical department in his vicinity, and his judgment was generally considered as conclusive:
but those years were numbered, and as he faded, brighter lights arose: he saw Science smile on him, flit by,
and leave him unsolaced in a desert.------Mr. Sole was intimately acquainted with the system of Ray, and the earlier
botanists, and with the first edition of Hudson} but his idols were the two Bauhins, writers highly respectable! yet
abounding with the errors that are common to mortality in the dawning and infancy of science. The Herbarium of
Mr. Sole was replete with varieties, elevated to the rank of species: examining one day with a magnifier the nice distinctions
on the calyx valves of a species of Agrostis, which was apparently placed wrong, ‘Ah! you botanists of these days,’
exclaims the deceased, ‘ do nothing without your glass} we always knew a plant at sight, without such inspections.*
And might not that be a reason, sir, for the many errors ? ■■ Of the Linnsean system he knew very little; attached to
the opinions imbibed in his earlier days, his inclinations never led him to investigate, unbiassed, those of the Swedish
philosopher; and perhaps his partiality to the companions of his happier hours rendered him insensible to the bright
light that gleamed around him, or obscured his vision, when perusing the works of Linnseus.—Mr. Sole gave the public
a treatise upon that obscure race of plants, the«Mints of Great Britain,’ a work he was cautioned to revise before publication
} but here we must in pity tread lightly on the earth of departed science, and the yet glowing embers of genius:
and if our spirits, after their escape from this prison of clay, continue any attachments to what engaged them on earth,
we trust he is simpling in celestial fields, or at least that he bears with him a specimen of the ‘ golden branch.’ •ƒ■
f Æneid. Vi.
SUPPLEM ENT ART