IV PKEFACE. 



pages cannot pretend to completeness, they may prove 

 useful in preparing the way for some more perfect work 

 hereafter. Such a work which would be both useful and 

 interesting, will be greatly facilitated if any Harrovian 

 interested in Natural History will be so good as to furnish 

 us with details of any observations not noticed by those 

 whose researches are here placed at the disposal of the 

 inhabitants and of the school. 



It must be admitted that at first sight Harrow does 

 not appear to offer to the botanist a favourable scene for 

 his pursuits. We have here little or no variety of soil, 

 and little or no variety of cultivation. The combination 

 of clay, and pasture land, has not much to provide in the 

 shape of an interesting flora, and most of our rarest 

 plants are not to be obtained without the trouble of 

 walking some miles to find them. A few indeed occur in 

 Harrow Park, in the Grove, and on the Railway Embank- 

 ment ; but the collector will obtain but a poor herbarium 

 unless he be content to stroll at least as far as Horsington 

 Lane, the Greenford Canal, and the Pinner Drives. 

 To get at the choicest botanical hunting -fields he must 

 prolong his walks to Pinner and Oxhey Woods, to the 

 Ruislip Reservoir, to the banks of the River Brent, and 

 above all to Harrow Weald Common, at which place his 

 diligence cannot fail to be well rewarded. It happens un- 

 fortunately that even in these places our chief treasures 

 are both extremely local, and very sparsely scattered; 

 we cannot therefore refrain from expressing our earnest 

 hope that no Harrovian will ever give way to that 

 botanical greed which has led so many botanists to 

 extirpate in many parts of England our most unfrequent 

 and interesting varieties. We fear that the caution is 



