vi FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE RIVIERA 



It contains ninety-seven beautifully coloured plates on which some 

 138 species are figured. It has long been out of print. 



The present work, intended chiefly for tourists, is an attempt to 

 give short descriptions of about 1800 of the Flowering Plants grow- 

 ing wild on the French Riviera, as far as San Remo in Italy, and the 

 hill country to 1000 metres, or about 3300 feet, is included. It was 

 impossible to make a book of this size include characters of the 

 plants of the higher mountains, or indeed all the species of the plains 

 and hills. However, brief allusion is made to many other plants of 

 the district, including some characteristic introductions which form 

 such salient features in the landscape, and comparatively few species 

 which occur within the area treated are not mentioned at least by 

 name. A list of the Ferns is also given. The flora is so rich that 

 in the Department of the Var alone there are not less than 2140 

 species (excluding the Ferns), besides many sub-species which are 

 given specific rank by some botanists. 



For several reasons, and particularly because I have spent more 

 time in the Var, that Department is dealt with more fully than the 

 Department of les Alpes-Maritimes. Moreover, there is a far greater 

 area of unspoiled littoral in the Var. The word " littoral " is used 

 in the text in a general way, not for the coast only but to include the 

 stretch of comparatively low land within reasonable distance of the 

 seaboard. Much of it comprises low hills covered with Pines, Oaks 

 of several kinds, and maquis. 



Very little attention has been paid here to some of the large 

 " critical " genera, such as Rubus, Rosa, Hieracium and Salix ; nor 

 is there space for a full rendering of the Sedges and Grasses, though 

 some eighty-five of the Grasses are briefly characterized. For the 

 same reason comparatively few varieties are mentioned, and such a 

 family as Umbelliferse and some of the Apetalous families, such as 

 Polygonaceae and Chenopodiaceae, are somewhat summarily treated. 

 Many of these plants are not only inconspicuous weeds, some of them 

 well-known in the British Isles, but they flower in the late summer 

 when few visitors are in the South. 



The nomenclature does not follow rigidly the Vienna Rules of 

 1905 ; and in some cases a well-known name is purposely left, even 

 though it may not be the earliest name. Sometimes a synonym is 

 added. English names are given to most of the plants which appear 

 in Great Britain, but it was not thought desirable to coin many other 

 English names. 



An effort has been made to compile tables or keys to all the 

 genera occurring in the area. These have been based upon the 

 arrangement in Hooker's " Student's Flora of the British Isles," and 

 supplemented by reference to Coste's " Flore de la France," Arcan- 

 geli's " Flora Italiana," Bentham's " Handbook of the British Flora," 

 Babington's " Manual of British Botany," and other works. Owing 

 to there being no writer on western Mediterranean plants but Arcan- 

 geli who had adopted Hooker's tabular system of genera, great diffi- 



