53 



FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CORNISH FLORA. 

 By FRED. HAMILTON DAVKY, F.^.S. 



It is not asking too mucli that tlie publication in June, 1902, 

 of my Tentative List of the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Sf-e., of 

 CorniiHill, may be regarded as tlie first serious step towards the 

 compilation of a complete Flora of the County. What had 

 previously been accomplished in that direction was of purely 

 local character, and was so scattered through the Transactions of 

 our local and other scientific societies and books' as to be quite 

 beyond the reach of the ordinary worker, and more than irritating 

 to thfi specialist. Moreover, up to that time a deal of unpublished 

 and valuable information was in the possession of many enthusi- 

 astic field workers, who gladly hailed the opportunity of having 

 it incorporated with the mass of material which I had been 

 accumulating. 



Witli the publication of the Tentative List commenced a new 

 era in the study of the Cornish flora. Such activity, such desire 

 to unravel the tangled skein, is without parallel in the annals of 

 west-country science, notwithstanding that the last century 

 witnessed many remarkable revivals of interest in our composite 

 vegetation. Before the List was put into circulation, I was 

 receiving assistance in my work from about a score of ladies and 

 gentlemen, whose leisure has long been freely given to this 

 particular study. To-clay I am in correspondence with more 

 than fifty equally enthusiastic coadjutors, and there is scarcely a 

 district of any note in the whole of the county whicli is not 

 being looked after by some competent observer. 



As is but natural, this welcome increase of our forces has 

 resulted in the acquisition of a wealth of new material. 

 Hundreds of additional localities have been named for plants 

 already recorded in my Ust ; species hitherto unsuspected for 

 Cornwall have been tliscovored ; and, what is of prime imjiortance 

 to every botaiiist, the exact status of each plant occurring in the 

 county, whether as a native, colonist, denizen, or alien, is being 

 approximately defined. And not only so. Since flora is known 



