XV. A Botanical History of the Genus Tofieldia.By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S.
Read January 21, 1817.
Notwithstanding the assiduous labours of so many acute and learned men in the field of Botany for three centuries past, much still remains to be done in the mere determination of species. All our care and watchfulness are still requisite, to keep the science clear of confusion, even in the history and discrimination of Europæan plants. No accurate and scientific student will find any want of employment, or of well-deserved credit, in the exclusive cultivation of this field. The more familiar the plants, the less carefully have they, often, been studied, and the more numerous their synonyms, the greater is the chance of accumulated and intricate mistakes. Those who are competent to devote themselves to this branch of scientific inquiry, will wisely avoid all loss of time about matters of opinion, concerning which, men more learned and experienced than themselves have differed, but which are in general sufficiently settled for all practical uses, though they might be debated upon for ever, without any incontrovertible conclusion. Such are many of the genera in dispute between Linnæus and other authors; in alluding to which, I by no means wish to deter young botanists from the study of genera, one of the most instructive that they can pursue. But to learn and to teach are very different things. I cannot too often protest against those more tempting roads to immortality, gratuitous
