144 THE LONDON FLORA. [May, 



have not hitherto supplied Avhat is confessedly a desideratum, 

 a thing to be desired^ a work on the botany of the environs of 

 London? 



Besides this, the intended publication assumes more of a utili- 

 tarian than of a sentimental character, when it is considered 

 that there are thousands of young ^sculapians, or Nosologists, 

 or Therapeuticians, studying at the many metropolitan hospitals of 

 this great metropolis, and that all of them need a guide or a 

 text-book as well to the localities as to the classification and 

 sanative qualities of the various herbs which form the vegetable 

 part of their Pharmacopoeias and enter into their Galenical pre- 

 parations, mixtures, embrocations, etc. 



There are, besides the juvenile members of the healing arts, 

 several amateur botanists resident in the metropolis, to whom 

 a ' London Flora ' will be a useful vade mecum. The botany of 

 the metropolitan counties, though now well known, has to be 

 gleaned from many sources, as, has been above shown ; and the 

 intended new work will be a condensed epitome of all that is 

 known about the spontaneous growth of the district at the date 

 of its publication. 



The provincial members of the fraternity who come up to spend 

 a few days in London, will also herein get such information as 

 they are likely to want, and such as they have not time to cater 

 for themselves. 



Finally, this work will be useful to neophytes who are only 

 beginning to study the science. Here they will find it easier to 

 puzzle out the names of the London species, than if they had to 

 hunt them out in the entire collected plants of the British Flora. 



Note. The compiler and editor of the proposed new work 

 on Metropolitan British Botany, has been a resident in London, 

 and occasionally in all the counties with which it is politically 

 and physically connected, for nearly forty years ; and his bota- 

 nizing has been continuous and mostly confined to those counties. 

 He has also associated and corresponded with the most emi- 

 nent local botanists of the district during the afore-mentioned 

 period, several of whom, alas, have departed to their rest, 

 though their memory is still as green as a forest in leafy 

 June ; and he confidently expects that the assistance which he 

 has often had the pleasure of acknowledging, will be forth- 

 coming for his use in accomplishing his purposed undertaking. 



