BOTANY 



Verbascum lychnitis, Orobancbe ccerulea, Cephalanthera ensifolia, Gagea /utea, 

 Carex bosnninghausiana (hybrid), C. xanthocampa (? hybrid) and Phleum 

 pracox. Eight Rubi are not included in this enumeration, not being 

 considered distinct species by Sir Joseph Hooker. They are Rubus 

 affinis, R. tbyrsoideus, R. fusco-ater, R. Sprengelii, R. glandulosus^ R. 

 birtus, R. Bellardi, and R. pseudo-idceus. 



Of the 893 species of indigenous Hertfordshire flowering plants 

 there are about 1 1 o not recorded as native plants in Cambridgeshire, 

 about 1 20 are wanting in Bedfordshire, 170 in Buckinghamshire, 140 

 in Middlesex, and 100 in Essex. On the other hand, Cambridgeshire 

 has 55 indigenous species which are wanting in Herts, Beds has 30, 

 Bucks 22, Middlesex 34, and Essex 56 (exclusive of its coast plants). 

 Doubtful records are in all cases excluded. These figures might be very 

 much modified if the botany of each of the counties were equally worked 

 up. Taking the number of species in any adjoining county which are 

 absent from Hertfordshire as the best index of the degree of relationship, 

 it would appear that the flora of Bucks is the most nearly allied to that 

 of Herts, and that those of Cambridge and Essex are the most divergent 

 from that of Herts. This is just what might be expected from the 

 physical features and geological structure of these counties. The floras of 

 Cambridge and Essex have also a more northern or north-eastern facies 

 than that of Hertfordshire, which, as previously stated, is of a decidedly 

 southern type. The large number of Hertfordshire species which have 

 not been recorded from Buckinghamshire is probably due to the flora of 

 that county not having been so thoroughly investigated as ours has been. 



The following table gives a list of the Natural Orders of Phanero- 

 gamia which are represented in the county, with the number of genera 

 and species in each Order, and also the number of species which have 

 been reported but are excluded either because they cannot be considered 

 to be indigenous or because the evidence of their occurrence is open to 

 doubt. The general classification is that of Sir J. D. Hooker, but the 

 numbers indicate the genera and species enumerated in Pryor's Flora of 

 Hertfordshire, 



The number of species given in the table does not exactly tally with 

 the number on page 557 of that work. The total number of flowering 

 plants and ferns is there stated to be 1,1 16, of which 26 are ferns, leaving 

 1,090 flowering plants, of which 898 are considered to be indigenous. 

 Two species have since been added the oxlip (Primula elatior), a native 

 plant, and the alkanet (Ancbusa officinalis)^ an alien. 1 The soapwort 

 (Saponaria officinalis) being a denizen, and the water-thyme (Anacbaris 

 alsinastrum) being an introduced species, have been relegated to the 

 excluded species, and so also have Wallenbergia bederacea, Pyrola media, 

 Euphorbia stricta, and Carex canescens as having been included in our flora 

 on insufficient evidence. The 898 numbered species in Pryor's Flora 

 are thus reduced to 893, and the 192 excluded species are increased to 

 199, giving a total of 1,092. 



1 See Tram. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. x. p. ix. (1901). 

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