A chapter may here be legitimately devoted to the men in whose wake Horsefield and Crozier followed and to their own principal companions. The history of these men is peculiar. It is not simply that of individuals, but inseparably identified with that of the botanical societies of South East Lancashire and the neighbourhood, without question the most remarkable in England. Every man of course has had his own private and personal history, but the energies and activities of each have been so closely intermingled with those of his companions that the history is essentially like that of a tree or a corporate body,--not so much of many things as of an organic whole. Many persons have never so much as heard of these societies, though assembling almost at their very doors. While the learned and wealthy have been holding brilliant _soirées_ and _conversazioni_ in lecture halls and royal institutions, meetings have been going on among the weavers and other craftsmen, quietly and unostentatiously, with aims exactly similar, and success not inferior, and probably with tenfold more enjoyment to the bulk of those attending them, because of its simplicity and earnestness. Should the history of science in Lancashire ever come to be written at length, it would be wanting in one of its most interesting and important chapters were the proceedings of these societies to be omitted, whether the members who composed them were thought worthy of mention or not. The sketch we propose to give must necessarily be brief, but it will serve to indicate what a large amount of real, practical scientific knowledge exists among the workpeople of our district, and how superior these men are to the mere herb-gatherers or "yarb-doctors" with whom they have often been confounded, and who, though useful in their way, constitute an entirely different class.