Introduction 5 



tion at all times of the year, covering an area represented by a 3-mile 

 radius from Carfax, or to the tops of the low hills surrounding the Oxford 

 basin. A little commonplace flora, fairly known, and above all lived with 

 all the year round, may prove quite as useful educationally as scrappy 

 attempts at covering a wider area, or concentrating on the solution of the 

 more spectacular problems of a few aberrant types. The text is thus 

 designed, not so much to cover the story of plant-life in general, or the 

 British flora in particular, as to suggest a simple method for beginning 

 on any Flora which may be encountered, using local plants as the material 

 provided. The older and time-honoured method pursued by past genera- 

 tions, of the isolated amateur who bought a local or British 4 Flora ', and 

 tramped the country in order to find all the species recorded, and so 

 complete his * Herbarium', is not only time-consuming but unscientific, 

 leading to species-hunting and the theory of the lost sheep, by which the 

 ninety-nine common plants are neglected in the transports of finding some 

 obscure or critical type * new to the district '- 1 



It is sufficiently obvious that the first problem will be to find out the 

 conventional names of the plants concerned, in order to check their specific 

 descriptions and biological peculiarities, as already chronicled in a copious 

 literature ; 2 but it is recognized that the first duty of any University or 

 teaching institution is to provide oral instruction, and not to leave the 

 beginner to waste his time and break his energies in preliminary exercises 

 which may be readily covered in class. Nor is there any need at this stage 

 of the world's history for the individual student to recapitulate either the 

 work or the ideas of his predecessors. It may be therefore clearly stated 

 that the necessity for oral instruction and facilities for obtaining it in the 

 Botanical Department are assumed. 



The scope of the work falls naturally under separate headings : 



I. A preliminary review of the factors of the environment, and the general 



relations of local plant-life to these factors, as emphasized more 

 particularly in seasonal change. 



II. An account of the individual plant-forms included within the flora and 



isolated as conventional species, constituting the more strictly Floristic 

 part of the subject. 



III. The more intimate relation of the associated plants to their con- 

 ditions and each other, as determined by continued observation and 

 experiment, constituting what has become known as their Ecology. 



For this last purpose, in addition to the general record of the flora, 

 a number of stations may be isolated, as generally typical about 12 

 being considered sufficient for the purpose. These again are restricted 

 to sample tracts of small area (as stretches of 100-500 yards, or a few 

 acres), providing a partial flora of about 100 species, as a set convenient 

 to handle ; capable of being checked within an afternoon of 2-3 hours, 

 and of being followed throughout the year. 



The point of immediate interest is to put down on paper the more 

 obvious data; and with these at hand, it should be possible to pass on 

 to more detailed examination. If the initial stage of record be omitted, the 

 whole subject remains nebulous and vague ; just as it is difficult for the 

 ordinary person in winter to recall and visualize the summer conditions of 

 hedge and woodland, or vice versa. Even to see what is obvious requires 

 eyes, and the vision of the outdoor botanist must be stimulated by a 



1 Watson (1849), compiling early ecological data for his Cybde Britannica, notes (vol. ii, 

 p. 113) that the common Groundsel was not recorded for 20 counties, and the common Daisy 

 similarly passed unnoticed in 17 counties of Great Britain (loc. cit., p. 125). 



3 Babington (1922), Manual of British Botany, loth edit. 



