INTEODUCTION 



civil 



Dr. Noehden died on March 14, 1826, aged fifty- six, and was buried 

 in the Church of St. John the Baptist in the Savoy. He was never 

 married. For further particulars see the Gentleman's Magazine, May, 

 1826, pp. 466-8. 



James Benwell, a gardener employed for more than forty years in Benwell. 

 the Botanic Garden at Oxford, though uneducated, was a man of great 

 natural intelligence and possessed a good knowledge of British plants. 

 He was employed by Dr. Sibthorp in the preparation of the Flora 

 Oxoniensis, and is said to have been the first who observed Paris quadri- 

 folia and a few other rare plants in Oxfordshire, and Anthemis arvensis 

 in Berkshire in 181 2. Baxter, in Phaenogamous Botanij, says : '■ His 

 integrity and industry, and a natural propriety and civility of manner, 

 gained him the respect and esteem of all who knew him.' He died 

 on Oct. 7, 1819, aged eighty-four years. A print of him, a very 

 characteristic likeness, engraved by Mr. Skelton from a drawing by 

 Mr. A. Burt, is in the Library of the Botanic Garden at Oxford. 



The Midland Flora, to shorten its somewhat lengthy title, was pub- Midland 

 lished in two volumes, in 181 7. It was compiled by Thomas Purton, Flora. 

 who was born at Endon Burnell in Shropshire in 1768. He received 

 his education first at Alveley, and afterwards at Downton near 

 Shrewsbury, and then became a pupil of a surgeon at Alcester, named 

 Bloxam, whose daughter he afterwards married. He practised at first 

 in London, but eventually entered into partnership with his father-in- 

 law, and resided at Alcester till his death in 1833. 



An appendix to the Midland Flora appeared in 1821. In this third 

 volume many references will be found to Berkshire and Oxford- 

 shire plants, the records being furnished chiefly by Mr. W. Baxter. 

 The Eev. W. T. Bree, the Kev, W. S. Rufford, and Prof. Williams also 

 assisted. Four plants are added to the Berkshire flora, namely, 

 Orobanche minorr (0. Tri/olii-praiensis) by Prof. Williams, Ranunculus Lingva, 

 Silene nocUflora, and Latlnjrus Nissolia by Mr. Baxter. Mr. Rufford, of 

 Badsey in Warwickshire, the friend and helper of Purton, gave the 

 localities of a few Oxfordshire and Berkshire plants for insertion in 

 the Flora, but they had already been placed on record ; some of the 

 plates in the work were drawn by his wife. He died in 1836. The 

 Rev. W. T. Bree, a Warwickshire man, was born at Coleshill in 1787. Bkee. 

 He was educated at the Warwick Grammar School, and proceeded 

 from thence to Oriel College in Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree 

 in 1808 and his M.A. degree in i8r6 ; he became Rector of AUesley in 

 Warwickshire on the death of his father, and died at Allesley in 1863. 

 He was a contributor to the Phytologist and to other contemporaneous 

 Natural History Journals. His contributions from Berkshire added 

 nothing to the flora of that county, but his discovery of Lonicera 

 Caprifoliwn in Bagley Wood placed that plant on more definite record 



