lO INTRODUCTORY. 



and still receive the same, but the familiar tender plant 

 children of the old earth-cradle have cried in vain for adequate 

 notice to be taken of them. They hav» received indeed 

 scanty measure at the historian's hands. Yet good botanists 

 appear to have lived in East Yorkshire in time past, but 

 whether their work was extensive or systematic, one is unable 

 to gather, and, whatever it may have been, an inexplicable 

 diffidence or other unfortunate circumstance seems always to 

 have restrained them from publishing anything but the most 

 meagre list of species noted by them. Hence, so far as we 

 are aware, no great attempt at a Flora of the East Riding 

 ad hoc has hitherto been made. The want of this had been 

 felt for many years, and the thought of the writer to compile 

 such a work from his own practical investigation, together 

 with that of his friends, took shape in 1885. Two or three 

 years later a botanical section was organised in connection 

 with the Hull Scientific Club (now Hull Scientific and Field 

 Naturalists' Club), which included several ardent botanical 

 workers. The area of investigation was at first confined to the 

 district within twenty miles of the then Borough of Kingston- 

 upon-Hull, and so eagerly was the work commenced, and so 

 persistently has it continued up to the present time, that this 

 area has been most exhaustively tested in all its vegetal 

 resources, and with most encouraging results. The ver}- 

 many rambles along paths radiating from Hull, which the 

 work has involved, have afforded ample opportunity for 

 observation ; and, without claiming any degree of finality in 

 the matter of fresh discoveries, we may say with a fair degree 

 of assurance that examples of nearly all the species of plants 

 growing in the district named have been noted, collected, and 

 preserved. Moreover, the extension of the twenty miles limit 

 to the boundaries of the East Riding has been made possible by 

 the energetic action of the above-mentioned club, in the 

 planning and carrying out of its weekly excursion pro- 

 grammes, as well as it has been facilitated by the kindly 

 co-operation of working botanists living on the borders of 

 the riding at Selby, York, Malton, and Scarborough. 



At the same time as activities in the botanical field have 

 been carried on, a certain amount of historical and biblio- 

 graphical information has gradually come to hand, and a 

 brief sketch thereof ought not to form an inappropriate 

 chapter by way of introduction. 



The very earliest records of East Riding plants that we 

 have been able to find are those of John Ray, who, in his 

 "Second Itinerary" (1616) says, "We observed in a close 



