INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS. O 



numerously recorded habitats of the rarer plants, which 

 are scattered through the scientific periodicals and other 

 works. 



The author has likewise been f'avoiu'ed with many lists 

 and locaJities in manuscript, frequently authenticated by 

 specimens for his herbarium. The Botanical Society (of 

 London) has of late become veiy useful as a medium 

 tlu'ough which to obtain similarly authenticated facts. And 

 besides materials thus brought together, tlu'ough the ob- 

 servations of other botanists, and assistance liberally af- 

 forded to him, the author's own notes and collections have 

 accmnulated into a bulk formidably gi'eat, with reference to 

 the habitats and local situations of plants. 



From these accumulating materials, it has long been 

 wished to constiiict a general ' Cybele ' of Britain ; that is, 

 some kind of treatise, in which the facts should be first 

 condensed into an orderly aiTangement for reference, 

 and should be aftenvards gi'ouped and connected into more 

 general views and illustrations of vegetable distribu- 

 tion. The facts need to be sifted fi-om their many in- 

 termingled eiTors, — to be reduced into order, — to be ai*- 

 ranged according to their several kinds, — to be gi'ouped 

 and generalised. This having been accomplished, we may 

 then advance towai'ds the causes of vegetable distribution ; 

 namely, an investigation of those physical conditions, past 

 and present, which determine the floras of different coim- 

 tries. A Cybele of the vegetable kingdom at lai-ge would 

 be a vast undertaking. Measmed by the life and powers 

 of a single individual, it would be impracticable and in- 

 finite. A Cybele of British plants only, will requue the co- 

 operation and successive laboms of many botanists, before 

 it can approximate to completeness within its much more 

 limited scope. It is hoped that the present work, should 

 the author be enabled in carry it to a conclusion, will at 



