INTRODUCTION clxxix 



principal works from which he has quoted ; these are The Botanist's 

 Guide, The New Botanisfs Guide, The Phytologist, Hewett's Hundred of 

 Compton, Eobert son's Environs of Beading, Mrs. Eussoll's Keicbury Cata- 

 logue, Baxter's Phaenogamous Botany, Walker's Flora of Oxfordshire, Flora 

 Wellingtonensis, and the herbaria of Messrs. Rudge and Stubbs. In 

 the tabular list of Berkshire plants Mr. Britten enumerates over 800 

 species. The subsequent fourteen pages are devoted to giving detailed 

 localities of the more interesting plants, of which a few segregate 

 species are additions to those given in the tabular list. 



From the above number must be deducted a few species which have 

 been inserted on authority which has proved unreliable ; for instance, 

 Limosella aquatica, Carum Carui, and Stachys germanica, obtained from 

 Oxfordshire, and Chrysoplenium alternifoUum, and probably Asarmn euro- 

 paeum from Buckinghamshire localities; while Lathyrus palustris, Oro- 

 banche caerulea (purpurea), Gnaxihalium {Anteyinaria) dioicum, Salvia pratensis, 

 and Mentha sylvestris rest on very dubious authority. Rubus glandulosus 

 and Hieracium sylvatiaim are probably synonymous with Rubus Koehleri 

 and Hieracium sciaphihim. In the detailed list sixty-seven species are 

 claimed to be published additions to the flora of Berkshire ; of these, 

 however, twenty-two had been already published. Of the remaining 

 fortj^-five, Delphinium Ajacis, S<lene conica, Isatis tinctoria, Camelina sativa, 

 and Barbarea praecox are of casual occurrence. So much doubt is 

 attached to the naming of Ruhia peregrina, Hieracium murorum, 

 Potamogeton rufescens (alpinus,, P. heterophyllus (gramineum), and Linum 

 angustifolium, that they had better be removed from the list. But 

 Potamogeton crispum, Lemna gibba, L. trisulca, Scirpus Jluitans, Fesfuca 

 sciuroides, Avena pratensis, Poa compressa, NifeUa flexilis, which should 

 probably be N. opaca, and Agrostis canina, plants supplied chiefly from 

 Mr. Boswell's notes, are, I believe, published for the first time in 

 Mr. Britten's tabular list as Berkshire plants. Among Mr. Britten's 

 helpei's were some of the leading botanists, the Rev. W. W. Newbould, 

 the Rev. C. W. Penny, Mr. W. Thiselton Dyer, Dr. Trimen, Messrs. 

 H. C.Watson, J. C. Melvill, and H. Reeks. Their principal discoveries 

 will be found under their respective names. 



Mr. Britten's list had the unquestionable merit of bringing order 

 out of chaos, and for the first time in the history of the county the 

 salient features of its flora were brought into the compass of a single 

 work under a consistent systematic arrangement. In the Journal of 

 Botany, of which Mr. Britten is now the editor, in the volume for 1873, 

 pp. 133-140, he gives some additional localities, obtained chieflj' from 

 the herbarium of the British Museum ; these have been mentioned 

 already under the names of the respective observers — Mr. Rudge, Mr. 

 Foster, and Sir Joseph Banks. The new plants noticed are Doronicum 

 plantagineum and TJlex Galii from the herbaria of Rudge and Banks, 



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