BRITISH BOTANY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 129 



Sir James Smith and others, and five vohimes of Trausnctions had 

 been published. Stackliouse's Nereis Bn'tannica, Velley's Marine 

 Plants of the Southern Coast of Em/laud, and Bolton's Illnstratiom of 

 Ferns and Fungi were valuable works for the student of cryptogams ; 

 and in the last year of the century the first two volumes of Smith's 

 Flora Britannica were published. It will therefore be seen that at 

 this period the British botanist was really very well supplied with 

 descriptive works on the fiora of his country. 



For Ireland but little had been done — a few rare plants, such as 

 Dryas octopetala, Saxifraga umbrosa, and Arbutus Unedo, had long 

 been known as natives; and Caleb Threlkeld had in 1727 pubhshed 

 a Synopsis Stirpiuin Hibernicarum, which, according to Pulteney, 

 contained 535 species. 



Smith's Flora Britannica, having been published in the last 

 year of the century, affords some interesting statistics. The total 

 number of flowering plants described is 1307, but this number may 

 be reduced to 1180 by subtracting about 100 species not indigenous, 

 and 27 Willows not now considered distinct species. This Flora 

 also contains descriptions of 36 Ferns, 6 Equisetums, 6 Lyco- 

 podiums, 1 Pilularia, 1 Isoetes, 3 Charas, and nearly 300 Mosses. 

 It does not include Algae, Fungi, or Hepaticae, but these families 

 were included in Withering's Botanical Arrangement. 



It may be also noted that the era of County Floras had com- 

 menced — Relhan, Sibthorp, and Abbot having published their 

 Floras of the Counties of Cambridge (1785), Oxford (1794), and 

 Bedford (1798), respectively. The continuation of these County 

 Floras, which is one of the distinctive features of the botanical 

 literature of the century, will be referred to later on, 



We have seen that Smith & Sowerby's English Botany was 

 commenced in 1790, but it extended through thirty-six volumes, 

 till March, 1814, and so is the first work which demands our 

 particular attention. Its merits are too well known to need any 

 record here. Its 2592 plates comprise 1445 flowering plants (of 

 which, however, only about 1250 are distinct native species), 

 40 Ferns, 7 Equisetums, 6 Lycopodiums, 1 Pilularia, 1 Isoetes, 

 6 Charas, 343 Mosses, 80 Hepaticas, and 663 "Alg^" (including 

 280 Lichens). 



The following, amongst other interesting plants, were first 

 figured and described in this great work: — Mathiola incana, Arabis 

 ciliata, Draba azoides, Elatine hexandra, Oxytropis canipestris, 

 Rosa hibernica, Saxifraga Geiun, Bupleuruni aristatuni, Aster Lino- 

 syris, Bryanthus taxifolius, Pyrola media , Moneses, Myosotis alpestris, 

 Pinguicula grandiflora, Polygonatum verticillatum, Juncus tenuis, 

 Scheuchzeria, Kobresia, Carex elongata, C. rarijiora, C. humilis, 

 C. tomentosa, C. vaginata, C. ustulata, Alopecurus alpinus, and 

 Deyeuxia neglecta. 



Of course there were a large number of contributors to English 

 Botany during the twenty-four years of its publication. A few of 

 the more important were — the Rev. Charles Abbot, the Bedford- 

 shire botanist ; James Backhouse, of York ; Rev. Henry Beeke, of 

 Devonshire ; Miss Biddulph (Algae) ; William Borrer, of Henfield, 



