BOTANY 



the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, many additions have 

 been made to the lists of flowering plants and mosses and a few lichens, 

 chief credit being due to the late Rev. T. A. Preston of Thurcaston, who 

 kept a complete account of all the flowering plants of the county, with 

 the intention of publishing a new edition of the Flora, The additional 

 lichens are contained in a paper in the journal of Botany for February, 

 1904, by A. R. Horwood. Other papers on mosses, by A. B. Jackson, 

 have appeared in the same journal for November, 1904, August, 1905, 

 and August, 1906. 



In this article all aliens which have been found since 1886 have been 

 disregarded, the majority of these being casuals introduced with corn, &c., 

 and found in the immediate neighbourhood of flour-mills, on railway and 

 canal banks, and other similar places. Such plants are quite insignificant in 

 the treatment of a county flora, as most of them are just as likely as not to 

 be found in any part of the civilized world. In estimating the flora it does 

 not, however, seem desirable to ignore all the aliens reported up to 1886, but 

 they must be distinguished from the native plants. It is sometimes difficult 

 to differentiate between aliens, denizens, and colonists ; it is often a matter of 

 opinion as to which of these some plants should be referred. 1 



The list of Leicestershire flowering plants in this article contains 943 

 species. Of those 38 are extinct, 11 doubtful, 15 mistakes, and 109 aliens, 

 leaving a balance of 770 natives, denizens, and colonists now to be found 

 growing. Comparing Leicestershire with the county which on the whole 

 it most nearly resembles, a very similar result appears. Nottinghamshire has 

 a total of 966 recorded flowering plants and vascular cryptogams as follows : 

 extinct 41, doubtful 13, mistakes 6, aliens, casuals, and garden escapes, 134 ; 

 leaving a balance of 772 natives, denizens, and colonists now growing in the 

 county a numerical difference of 2 ; but, of course, the species are not exactly 

 the same. This numerical similarity is accentuated by an almost identical 

 number of mosses, as stated under the heading Muscineae. Lincolnshire 

 being so much larger, and having a considerable coast-line, has a larger flora 

 than either of the two mentioned counties, but not a larger one than might 

 be expected. There are 1,191 records, of which 20 are extinct, 24 doubt- 

 ful, 20 mistakes, and 248 aliens, leaving us with 879 natives, colonists, and 

 denizens. 



The total number for Northamptonshire given by Mr. Druce in the 

 Victoria History is 830. Further comparison with the other counties forming 

 the boundaries of Leicestershire may be given, but the writer attaches no 

 importance to these figures because opinions differ so much regarding the 

 degree of wildness of our flowering plants. It has, however, been the custom 

 in writing the flora of our counties, as well as of countries, to compare one 

 with another ; it may therefore be stated that Warwickshire is very similar, 

 both numerically and in the character of its species, to Leicestershire, and 

 that Derbyshire is of course far richer, as might be expected of a county with 

 gritstone moorlands over 2,000 ft. above the sea, and mountain limestone 

 pastures and gorges with splendid cliffs, intersected by boulder-strewn rapid 



1 In the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union Transaction! for 1906 the Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock has an 

 article entitled ' Natural Habitats and Nativeness,' which was the subject of his presidential address. He 

 suggests other terms for Mr. H. C. Watson's ' denizen," ' colonist,' &c. 



2 9 



