XU MEMOIR 



followed by " Birds' Nests " (1854) and "Birds of the Wood and 

 Field " (1859-1862), leading up to " Birds in their Haunts," which 

 still ranks as a standard introduction to British ornithology. 



Johns opened Winton House, Winchester, in 1863, as a 

 private school for boys ; and, a few years later, he founded the 

 Winchester Literary and Scientific Society, of which he became 

 President, and to which his last scientific works, papers on the 

 fall of the leaf, on Vesuvius, and on a collection of shells, were 

 communicated. He died at Winton House on June 28, 1874. 



We have not been able to enumerate his many educational 

 publications, though all his chief scientific work has been men- 

 tioned. It will, however, be interesting for us to trace the history 

 of " Flowers of the Field." As first published in 1853, it consisted 

 of two volumes, with an introduction of 59 pages, 32 of which 

 were devoted to the Linnsean system, and 380 pages of text in the 

 first and 273 pages in the second. The book ended with Zosfera, 

 grasses and sedges being omitted, and trees being barely men- 

 tioned. It was soon afterwards issued in one volume, with the 

 same introduction and 664 pages of text, and remained well-nigh 

 unchanged until 1892, being re-issued at frequent intervals. The 

 fifth edition, for instance, published about 1865, was the first 

 botanical book possessed by the present editor. In 1892 an 

 appendix of 96 pages, entitled " Grasses," but also comprising the 

 sedges, was compiled by the author's son, C. Henry Johns, M.A., 

 from Bentham and Hooker's " Handbook of the British Flora." 

 In 1899 I entirely recast the book, largely rewriting it, and, in 

 endeavouring to bring it up to the level of present-day British 

 botany, inevitably enlarging it, so that the twenty-ninth re-issue, 

 of February 1900, which I was graciously permitted to dedicate 

 to H.R.H. Princess Alice Mary of Albany, now Princess Alexander 

 of Teck, ran to 926 pp. of text, in addition to 52 pages of intro- 

 duction. This edition having been twice re-issued, had, in 19 10, 

 64 coloured plates by Miss Grace Layton added to it when pub- 

 lished as the thirty-second edition. It has now once more been 

 fully and carefully revised so as to bring its nomenclature into 

 accordance with the rules of the Vienna Congress, as endorsed by 

 that" held at Brussels in 19 10, and to incorporate newly-discovered 

 species. 



I have to acknowledge the loan of the accompanying portrait, 

 and much valuable information for this brief memoir, from 

 Mr, F. Hamilton Davey, the author of the " Flora of Cornwell." 



G. S. BOULGER. 



