

PREFACE 



THE present little book occupies an inter- 

 mediate place between the numerous popu- 

 lar works in which the principal feature is the 

 illustration of wild flowers, and more purely 

 technical works (whether illustrated or not) in 

 which most stress is laid on botanical details 

 and descriptions. It is hoped, therefore, that it 

 may serve as a useful companion to the former 

 class, and as an introduction to the latter. 



The recognised classification of British Flowering 

 Plants, as adopted in most recent English works 

 on the subject, does not differ very much ; and 

 we have decided to follow that adopted in the 

 ninth edition of Babington's " Manual of British 

 Botany," edited by Henry and James Groves 

 (1904), as the latest, though we have not always 



used the exact names employed therein for some 

 of the plants. 



In this work ninety-two Orders of British flower- 

 ing plants are recognised ; in the fifth edition of 

 Bentham and Hooker's " Handbook to the 

 British Flora" (1887), in which the general ar- 

 rangement is approximately the same, eighty-nine 

 Orders are described. 



A few of our illustrations represent plants not 

 found in the British Islands ; but, with a single 

 exception {G lobular iacecc) every Order figured is 

 represented in our British Flora. 



We have endeavoured to point out the most 

 important botanical characters of every British 

 Order in the following pages, especially as regards 

 the structure of the flower ; and most of the more 



