INTRODUCTION. XI 



detected on their visit to tlie Channel islands, during the sum- 

 mer of last year, of which I have gladly availed myself. 



The design of this work would not allow of so many stations 

 being given for the rarer plants as could have been wished: and 

 indeed the Author has been rather anxious to indicate the range 

 of the species, than the precise spot where any particular one is 

 found. The admirable ^^ Botanist's Guide' of Messrs Turner and 

 Dillwyn ; the interesting " Outlines of the Geographical Distri- 

 bution of British Plants" and the New ^^ Botanist'' s Giiide," by 

 H. C. Watson, Esq. ; Air J. T. RIackay's valuable ''Flora Hiber- 

 nica" and the various local Floras which are now happily become 

 exceedingly numerous, may, for information on this head, be 

 consulted with great advantage. 



IMr J. E. Bowman has, with his accustomed good judgment, 

 suggested the propriety of erasing from the British Flora such 

 plants as Buffbnia tennifulia, Swertia perennis, Gentiana acaii- 

 lis, Stipa pennata, and some others universally acknowledged to 

 be neither indigenous to the British isles nor naturalized 

 amongst us : and my first impression was to adopt this sugges- 

 tion. But upon further consideration, I retain them, out of 

 respect to the memory of Sir Jas. Smith, who saw reason to 

 consider them British, and who introduced them as such, not 

 only into \\\%'' Flora Briiannica"\)ut into '■'English Botany' and 

 the "English Flora ;" works of so high a character that they may 

 well be considered as standard authority for such plants as 

 were deemed indigenous to Britain at the period of their pub- 

 lication. I have, nevertheless, thought proper to place an as- 

 terisk (*) against the names not only of such species as no longer 

 exist in the given localities, but also against others which have 

 become naturalized through the agency of man. I cannot, how- 

 ever, consent to admit every plant that recent research has de- 

 tected in uncultivated ground, merely because Oenothera biennis 

 and Datura Stramonium have, without sufficient consideration, 

 found a place in oiir Flora. The Martagon Lily and the Ame- 

 rican Touch-me-Not can have no claim to be considered British 

 plants. 



It may be well to remark here, that the figures which follow 

 tlie season of flowering of the plants in the descriptive pages, 

 viz. :— © , $ , !{., and Tj , signify : 



