THE FLORA OF WARWICKSHIRE. 11 



THE FLORA OF WARWICKSHIRE. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS 



OF THE COUNTY OF WARWICK. 



BY JAMES E. BAGXALL. 



Hitherto no complete flora of the county of Warwick has been 

 published. In the hope of supplying this deficiency, the following 

 notes have been compiled. These will consist of my own notes made 

 in various parts of the county during the past fourteen years, and also 

 of all the records of past and present observers, so far as these have 

 been within my reach. But in availing myself of past records, some 

 of them dating as far back as the earlier editions of Ray's works, I 

 have not deemed it wise or needful to record those stations that are 

 now known to be destroyed. The growth of towns, agricultural 

 improvements, the ramifications of our great railway system, and 

 other results of modern progress, together with the greed of collectors, 

 have probably destroyed some of the old habitats I have ventured to 

 quote, but as I have no certain knowledge of this, I have felt it better 

 to give the record. A Flora which ignores the work of past botanists 

 would not only be an incomplete but also an unjust one. 



I have to acknowledge with gratitude the valuable and kindly help 

 I have from time to time received. To Professor C. C. Babington, 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, and the late Rev. Andrew Bloxam I am indebted for 

 valuable assistance in the study of critical genera. To Mr. Hewett C. 

 Watson for specimens of rare and critical plants, and also for the gift 

 of his valuable works on Topographical Botany, from which 1 shall 

 quote as occasion serves. To my old friend Henry Bromwich for 

 many rare Warwickshire specimens, and for valuable information as 

 to the localities of our rarer plants in South Warwick. To Mr. James 

 Groves for his opinion on the Characeae of the county. To the Rev. 

 John Caswell for lists of plants observed by him about Salford Priors, 

 and also in the neighbourhood of Oscott. To Mr. H. W. Trott, 

 formerly a painstaking and enthusiastic member of the Rugby School 

 Natural History Society, for many notes from the Rugby district. I 

 am also deeply indebted to the Rev. W. W. Newbouldfor very ample 

 notes from the hitherto unworked portion of the county, forming the 

 basin of the Stour, a very inaccessible district. I have also to 

 thank him for many valuable suggestions, and for the many kind- 

 nesses he has shown me ; such as searching works I was unable 

 to obtain, and copying for me an amount of valuable m atter that 

 has proved of great service. 



Topography. 



Warwickshire is the most central English county, and has a some- 

 what irregular form, tapering to the north and to the south. 



It is bounded on the north by Derbyshire, on the north-west by 

 Staffordshire, on the west by Worcestershire, on the south-west by 

 Gloucestershire, on the south and south-east by Oxfordshire, on the 



