iv PREFACE. 



for which it was written. Our standard Floras, 1 whatever 

 their botanical merit, require too much previous scientific know- 

 ledge for a beginner or mere amateur to understand without 

 assistance the characters by which the plants are distinguished 

 from each other. 



" In the endeavour to compile a more practical guide to the 

 botanical riches of our islands, the Author has recalled to his 

 mind the process by which he was enabled, nearly torty y*ars 

 since, without any previous acquaintance with the subject, to 

 determine the wild plants he gathered in the neighbourhood of 

 Angouleme and of Montauban, the difficulties he had to sur- 

 mount, and the numerous mistakes he was led into. Keeping 

 these points in view, and taking, in some measure, De Can- 

 dolle's 'Flore' as his model, he has here attempted a descrip- 

 tive enumeration of all the plants wild in the British Isles, 

 distinguished by such characters as may be readily perceived by 

 the unlearned eye, and expressed, as far as lay in his power, in 

 ordinary language, using such technical terms only as appeared 

 indispensable for accuracy, and whose adopted meaning could 

 be explained in the work itself. 



"In commencing this process the Author originally con- 

 sidered that a mere compilation might be sufficient. The 

 British plants are so well known, they have been so repeatedly 

 described with so much detail, they are mostly so familiar to 

 the Author himself, that it appeared to him only necessary to 

 select from published descriptions the characters that suited 

 his purpose. But he soon found that no satisfactory progress 

 could be made without a careful comparison and verification of 

 the characters upon the plants themselves; and, during five 

 years that the present work has been in hand, the whole of the 



1 The Floras here alluded to are Hooker and Arnott's " British Flora," 

 of which the last (eighth) edition was published in 1860, and Babing- 

 ton's " Manual of British Botany," ed. 7th, which has advanced to a 

 eighth edition, published in 1881. J. D. H. 



