14 THE FLORA OF WALES. 



last century. He was a friend of Lightfoot, and correspondent of 

 Sir J. Cullum and Sir Joseph Banks, both of whom seem to have had 

 the credit of discoveries made by Holcombe. This was pointed out by 

 Professor Babington in a note on " Pembrokeshire Plants and the Rev. 

 Mr. Holcombe," printed in the Journal of Botany for 1886, p. 22.* 



Hugh Davies (1739-1821), the son of a rector of Llandyfrydog, 

 in Anglesey, was educated at Beaumaris Grammar School and 

 Jesus College, Oxford, and after taking orders he was successively 

 usher at the Beaumaris School (? 1762-1778), incumbent of Beau- 

 maris (1778-1787), and of Aber, Carnarvonshire (1787-1816) ; the 

 last of which livings he resigned, and then retired to live at Beau- 

 maris. He was probably the greatest authority on botany that 

 Wales has ever produced. His opinion was frequently sought by 

 eminent scientists ; and he rendered much assistance to Pennant, 

 whose acknowledgment thereof is couched in terms of his praise. 

 His Welsh BotanoIo(/i/, published in 1813 (and entered below), has 

 been the foundation of much, if not most, of what has subsequently 

 been written on the subject of Welsh botany. 



In the present century we find that the Rev. William Bingley 

 (1774-1823), who was a well-known botanist, appended to his Tour 

 Round North Wales, performed during the summer of 1798 (2 vols., 

 London, 1800, 8vo), "A Catalogue of the more uncommon Welsh 

 Plants, with their places of growth " (printed at vol. ii., pp. 371- 

 433). This list, with apparently some additions, is reproduced 

 (under the title of " Flora Camhrica: a Systematical Catalogue of 

 the more uncommon Welsh Plants, with their Places of Growth 

 and Times of Flowering") as an appendix to an enlarged edition of 

 the preceding work bearing the name "North Wales .... de- 

 lineated, from two excursions during the summers of 1798 and 

 1801" (2 vols., London, 1804, 8vo, 2nd ed., 1814). What is de- 

 scribed as a third edition of Bingley's work, "with corrections and 

 additions made during excursions in the year 1838, by his son, 

 W. R. Bingley," was brought out in 1839 (1 vol., London, 8vo, 

 1839, pp. 355), but it is so altered as to contain very little of the 

 original. The Catalogue of Plants is omitted, but lists of Snow- 

 donian plants are given instead on pp. 125 and 129. 



The Rev. John Evans, sometime Fellow of Jesus College, 

 Oxford, also published in 1800 a Tow through North Wales in 1798, 

 "with botanical researches," a second edition of which was also 

 issued in 1804. The same writer issued in 1804 a companion 

 volume, entitled, "Letters written during a tour through South 

 Wales in 1803," and he also wrote the account of North Wales 

 which formed vol. xvii. of The Beauties of England and Wales 

 (London, 1812, 8vo). In all three works considerable attention 

 is paid to the natural history of the country.! 



* See also Biographical Index of Botanists, p. 84, and the authorities there cited. 



t Bibliographical details of Evans's works are given in the list of topo- 

 graphical books above. A passage dealing with the rarer plants of Wales has 

 also been quoted from Evans's North Wales in the Keport of the Commission in 

 the chapter on "Biological Conditions." [This is the passage from which we 

 have quoted in our preliminary note. — Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



