INTRODUCTION clxiil 



Phaenogamous Botany, or Figures and Descriptions of the Genera of British 

 Flowering Plants. The plates of this work, though of unequal merit, 

 are in many cases very excellent, and possess a special value^ because 

 each figure is drawn from an individual plant, the locality or origin 

 of which is usually stated. The text bears witness to Baxter's keenness 

 of observation and to his untiring industry. Very many localities, a 

 large number of which are new ones, are given for the rarer plants. 

 Several species are given for the first time as occurring in Berkshire. The 

 Fungi which are found on the various plants ai-e also noticed. In 

 addition to his literary work, he was indefatigable in his management 

 of the Botanic Garden ; he raised its level so that the floods were 

 kept out which formerly did much mischief, and he got together 

 with great pains a nearly complete collection of willows, grasses, 

 sedges, and a large number of hardy herbaceous plants, with the 

 result that the Oxford Botanic Garden became, for its size, one of the 

 most celebrated in Great Britain. In conjunction with Dr. Ayres he 

 contributed a paper on the Oxfordshire Cryptogams to the Pkytologist 

 (see vol. i. pp. 66i-702\ He also rendered material assistance te 

 Mr. "Walker in the preparation of his Oxford Flora ; indeed almost all 

 the new records — for instance. Iris foetid issima, Pyrus Aria, P. torminalis, 

 Lactuca virosa, and Luzvla congesta (Juncoides muUiJloriim, var. congestum)- — in 

 that work were contributed by Mr. Baxter. He retired in 1851 from 

 the active management of the Garden, and died on Nov. i, 1871, in the 

 84th year of his age. There is a print of him in the Hope Collection 

 at Oxford by Whessell, from a drawing by Burt. 



The present writer has endeavoured to connect Mr. Baxter's memory 

 with the district by naming after him two hybrid plants which are 

 found in the counties he loved so well, namely Seneeio Baxterii and 

 Linaria Baxterii, and he only regrets that they do not more worthily 

 commemorate 'one whose private life was without reproach, and 

 whose unassuming manner and readiness to assist impressed all who 

 came in contact with him/ 



The author is in possession of a considerable number of Mr. Baxter's 

 manuscript notes, which give the results of his botanical wanderings 

 in the neighbourhood of Oxford and add several plants to the Berk- 

 shire flora. From these notes the following new records have been 

 obtained of Ranunculus hederaceus, R. parviflorus, Geranium pusillum, Malra 

 moscliata, Geranium rotundifolium, Valerianella oli'oria, Cakinuntha (Nepeta), 

 C. parvifora, and Picris hieracioides, obsei'%^ed by him in 1812. In Purton's 

 Midland Flora he recorded Erysimum cheiranthoides in 18 19, already given 

 by How; and to the Appendix to that work, issued in 1821, he con- 

 tributed Lathyrus Nissolia, Silene noctiflora, and Ranuncidus Lingua. He 

 observed Rosa tomentosa, Seneeio erucifolius, &c., in 1820; Sedum Telepthium, 

 Juncus lampocarpus (articulatus), Bromus commutatus, Eypochoeris radicata, 



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