INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS. 



IN former works by the writer of this volume a wish was 

 repeatedly expressed, that his records shewing distribution of 

 plants, might be carried downwards from provinces into the 

 more copious details of county habitats ; at the same time, 

 indicating also the personal testimony, in reliance on which the 

 distribution of the plants could be so set forth. The citation of 

 such personal testimony would equally corroborate their pro- 

 vincial distribution, as previously set forth in the ' Cybele 

 Britannica ' and connected works ; in which the counties have 

 been usually treated in provincial and sub -provincial groups, 

 not singly or further divided into vice-counties, as they are 

 now to be taken here. For example, in here stating personal 

 authorities for the counties of (say) Cornwall and Devon and 

 Somerset, one or two for each county, three to six such autho- 

 rities will thus be adduced for the existence of the plant in the 

 province of the Peninsula; also one or two for the dispersed 

 existence of it in each of the three Peninsula sub-provinces. 



It is to be understood, indeed, that one chief purpose in 

 entering upon the comital details, is that of doing somewhat 

 tardy justice to those botanists whose labelled specimens and 

 manuscript notes and local lists have often proved so useful to 

 the Author, while writing the ' Cybele Britannica ' and allied 

 works. He has always felt it incumbent upon him, and due 

 to those valued correspondents (alas, too many of them now no 

 more) that some method should be found for at any rate par- 

 tially putting on permanent record his great obligations to them. 

 To do so, is to pass down to a succeeding generation the clearest 

 evidence, not only on which of the botanists of the current 

 period the progress of topographical botany has so largely 



