PREFACE. 



These little essays originally appeared as articles 

 in ' Longman's Magazine,' the ' Comhill Magazine.' 

 •Macmillans Magazine,' the 'Gentleman's Magazine/ 

 and ' Bclgravia; and I have to thank the editors and 

 proprietors of those periodicals for kind permission 

 to reprint them here. They are now oflered to the 

 public as a first instalment of a work which I hope 

 some day more fully to carr>' out- a Functional 

 Companion to the British Flora, \Vc know by this 

 time pretty well what our English wild floxvers are 

 like : we want to know next why they are just what 

 they are, and how they came to be so. 



G. A. 



Lyme, Dorset : 

 7**ry 1S83. 



