PREFACE. 



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During the last twelve years (the period in whioh I was connected with 



the Liverpool School of Medicine, as lecturer on botany), a prize was given 



(and is still continued) each year for the best collection of plants made by 



the students within a circuit of fifteen miles of Liverpool. This is the limit 



within whioh, for the most part, our observations obtain. The collections 



sent in at these periods were often very valuable and extensive ; and highly 



creditable to the industiy and intelligence of the competitors. From this 



source much information as to the habitats, time of flowering, &c., has been 



obtained. 



The present paper embraces the Flowering Plants, the Ferns and their 

 allies, and the Mosses. The remaining divisions of the Flowerless Plants, 

 viz., the Algse, Lichens, &c., are the objects of careful and persevering in- 

 vestigation by some of the members of this Society ; and we may reasonably 

 hope that in the course of another session, a complete list of these will be 

 supplied, as well as a Fauna of the district, for which such ample materials 

 are collected by competent observers. 



The arrangement of the Orders, Genera, and Species are, for the most 

 part, the same as in Hooker and Arnott's British Flora, a work which 

 should be in the hands of every practical student of British botany. 



