Book I. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE BRITISH FLORA. 



275 



1801. In respect to geographical distrihution, the mountainous and hilly districts of 

 England and South Wales are most prolific ; the greatest number, according to extent of 

 surface, are foimd in England and Wales, and the smallest number in Ireland. 



1802. The genera of the mttive British Flora enter into 23 classes and 71 orders of the 

 former, and 8 classes and 121 orders of the latter system. 



1 80;5. With respect to the uses or application of the native Flora, there are about 18 sorts 

 of wild fruits which ?nai/ be eaten, exclusive of the wild apple and pear ; but only the 

 pear, apple, plum, currant, raspberry, strawberry, and cranberry, are gathered wild, or 

 cultivated in gardens. There are about 20 boiling culinary plants natives, including the 

 cabbage, sea-kale, asparagus, turnip, carrot, and parsnep. There are about the same 

 number of spinaceous plants, salading, and pot and sweet herbs, which may be used, but 

 of which a few only enter into the dietetics of modern cooks. There are 3 fungi, in 

 general use, the mushroom, truffle, and morel ; and various others, as well as about 8 

 species of sea-weeds, are occasionally eaten. There are about 6 native plants cultivated as 

 florist's flowers, including the Primula ehitior, Crocus, iVarcissus, Dianthus, &c. Nearly 

 100 grasses, clovers, and leguminous plants are used in agriculture, or serve in their native 

 places of growth as pasturage for cattle. Two native plants, the oat and the big or wild 

 barley, are cultivated as farinaceous grains. Most of the trees are used in the mechanical 

 arts, for fuel, or for tanning : one plant, the flax, not aboriginal, but now naturalised, 

 affords fibre for the manufacture of linen cloth. Various plants yield coloured juices 

 which may be, and in part are, used in dyeing ; and some hundred species have been, and 

 a few are still, used in medicine. About 20 cotyledonous plants, and above 50 acotyle- 

 donous, chiefly fungi, are, or are reputed to be, poisonous, both to men and cattle. 



1804. By the a7'ti/icinl Flora of Britain, we understand such of the native plants as 

 admit of preservation or culture in gardens ; and such exotics as are grown there, whether 

 in the open ground, or in different descriptions of plant habitations. The total number 

 of species which compose this Flora, or Hortus Britdnnicus, as taken from Sweet's cata- 

 logue of 1819, is about 13,000, including botanists' varieties, and excluding agamous 

 plants. This Flora may be considered in regard to the countries whence the plants were 

 introduced ; the periods of their introduction ; their obvious divisions ; their systematic 

 classification ; their garden habitations ; their application ; and their native habitations. 



1805. With respect to the native countries of the artificial fora, or H6rtus Britdnnicus, 

 of 970 species, they are unknown; the remaining 12,000 species were first introduced 

 from the following : 



1806. With respect to the dates of the introduction of the exotics from those countries, 

 not any are known before the time of Gerard, in Henry VIII.'s reign. From tliis 

 author and Trew, it appears that 47 species were introduced in or before 1548, including 

 the apricot, fig, pomegranate, &c. Those previously introduced, of which the dates are 

 unknown, may be considered as left here by the Romans, or afterwards brought over 

 from France, Italy, and Spain^ by the ecclesiastics, and preserved in the gardens of the 



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