Vlll PREFACE. 



so great, that students can readily extend their researches to the 

 more distant sandy heathlands and chalk ranges of Kent and Surrey, 

 to the woodlands and cornfields of Essex and Herts, as well as to 

 the banks of the Thames above Richmond and below Erith. 



In addition to an alphabetical list of all flowering plants and 

 Cryptogams, down to Mosses and their allies inclusive, growing within 

 an average radius of thirty miles from London, with their respective 

 records of where found, as far as it is practicable not to overlook 

 them, and omitting all such as are in any way doubtful by reason 

 of antiquity of date a series of localities is appended, with lists 

 of the plants to be found there, preceded by short topographical 

 descriptions, most of them having been subjected more or less to 

 personal investigation, and all arranged to suit the requirements of 

 half-holiday makers and students, with whom time is a consideration. 

 Lichens and Fungi are also included, but only the more generally 

 distributed and important species. The lists have also been made 

 out with reference, less to what lias been, than to what does actually 

 exist and in appreciable quantity. The nomenclature is that 

 adopted by Mr. Watson in his ' Catalogue of British Plants,' latest 

 edition, 1874 (Messrs. Hardwicke and Bogue, Piccadilly). 



With regard to these personal investigations, the author begs to 

 state that they were carried on for seven years consecutively under 

 circumstances of impaired health, contracted in India, which 

 compelled him to take much exercise in the open air of the country, 

 whenever the state of the weather would admit of it ; and having 

 for many years previously devoted much of his leisure time to 

 botanical pursuits, the opportunity was taken advantage of to 

 obtain the required information ; an expenditure of time however, 

 which might have been deemed by others, better qualified for the 

 task than himself, not only wearisome but unprofitable. Every 

 plant gathered or seen in situ by the author is marked with an 

 asterisk, but only where the observation was duly recorded at the 

 time; vague recollections of having seen them elsewhere are untrust- 

 worthy. Collectors will observe that new localities for rare plants 

 are few and far between. In this direction the author's researches 

 have been far from satisfactory ; in fact, it is a question now-a-days, 



