INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 



collections of these are still extant, and are valuable as 

 affording examples mostly of the common species of the 

 "Neighbourhood of Kingston-upon-Hull " (1854). Young's 

 list, we are told, numbered 400 flowering plants and ferns ; 

 his collections and volumes of well-preserved natural speci- 

 mens did not each contain more than 150 species, mostly 

 of plants previously noted, but they are of great importance 

 to us as being almost the only examples of herbaria earlier 

 than 1880 that are now accessible to us. 



Overton's "History of Cottingham " (1861) makes 

 mention of Mr. Young's botanical investigations of the 

 parish of Cottingham, and in conjunction with James 

 Craig Niven, Curator of the Hull Botanic Gardens (1853), 

 Young had prepared, or was going to prepare, a flora 

 of Cottingham, but circumstances were against its publica- 

 tion, and so it is not included in Overton's "History." 

 The late Mr. Niven, an able curator, a good botanist and 

 lecturer on botanical subjects, knew very much about our 

 less conspicuous wild plants, e.g. the sedges, grasses, &c. ; 

 but it does not appear, from information that has been 

 aff"orded by Edw. A. Peak, the late courteous superinten- 

 dent of the Hull Municipal Parks, that Niven, who died . 

 in 1881, left any MSS. or other data to help us in our 

 compilation. 



Next in historical sequence come the proceedings of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, as detailed in "The Naturalist," 

 the first number of which was published in 1833. Although 

 meagre on the whole, the lists of plants recorded by eminent 

 botanists on flying visits to the East Riding are very valuable, 

 and we gratefully admit the same to have materially aug- 

 mented the number of species already recorded. Amongst 

 the names of contemporary writers who, chiefly under the 

 auspices of the above-mentioned union, have helped us by 

 their observations are those of such distinguished botanists 

 as Dr. F. A. Lees, of Leeds, Dr. Parsons, formerly of Goole, 

 William Whitwell, Esq., F.L.S., now of London — all the 

 best of guarantees, we believe, that however much or little 

 they may have observed and recorded in our vice-county, it 

 has been a genuine and reliable addition to our knowledge. 

 Of our contemporaries still on the spot and working in the 

 field, one must only speak briefly, not being able in this 

 work to say all one would like concerning those with whom 

 once to botanise is to begin the pleasantest of friendships — 

 evidence too that there is much more of genial human interest 

 in our nature-study than may appear from the words in which 



