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PREFACE. 



BOTANISTS, and indeed many other visitors to the French and Italian 

 Riviera, have long wanted a portable book descriptive of the numerous 

 Flowering Plants to be found on those coasts and the adjoining hills ; 

 and it is believed that an illustrated work with short descriptions of 

 about 1 800 of the commoner and of the more interesting plants will 

 be found useful. We are unaware of the existence of any book 

 descriptive of a large proportion of the Riviera plants alone. Several 

 books of a more or less popular nature have been published during 

 recent years, but they have dealt with other features besides the 

 flowers. The best of these is the beautifully illustrated and extremely 

 readable " Riviera Nature Notes," by the modest " C. C.". The late 

 Professor Strasburger's "Rambles on the Riviera" should also be 

 mentioned. 



Ardoino's " Flore Analytique du Dept. des Alpes-Maritimes," 

 published in 1867, is a useful account of the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns of that department ; very frequent reference has been made to 

 it, but, as " C. C." remarked, it has been found to contain many 

 errors. The splendid work of M. Emile Burnat (" Flore des Alpes- 

 Maritimes "), 1892-1906, does not make the progress we should like 

 to see : four volumes (to Umbelliferae only) have hitherto appeared ; 

 and though so elaborate it is not primarily descriptive, nor is it illus- 

 trated. For the adjoining Department of the Var the " Catalogue 

 des Plantes Vasculaires " was published in 1908 by the late Abel 

 Albert and M. Emile Jahandiez. This useful work is still less a 

 descriptive " Flora," though it contains some interesting notes and 

 photographs. I am indebted to these two French botanists for much 

 information in regard to the habitats, times of flowering and localities 

 of many of the species. I have also to thank M. Jahandiez for kind 

 help in his Library and Herbarium at Carqueiranne. 



I have found Mr. Clarence Bicknell's large illustrated volume 

 (now out of print), entitled " Flowering Plants and Ferns of the 

 Riviera and Adjoining Mountains" (1885), very helpful, though it 

 contains descriptions and figures of not mofe than 220 plants. The 

 same writer's "Flora of Bordighera and San Remo" (1896) is a 

 catalogue of the wild plants of that neighbourhood, which contains 

 many original notes of great value. Moggridge's " Contributions to 

 the Flora of Mentone and to a Winter Flora of the Riviera" (1866- 

 71) is a costly work somewhat similar to Mr. Bicknell's larger volume. 



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