60 A FLORA OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 



we have to thank Mr. Jackson, who is also responsible for the full 

 and interesting list of contributors and the "botanical history of 

 the county." Mr. Hopkinson contributes the geographical and 

 geological notes. At the end are lists of Mosses, Algae, Hepatics, 

 Lichens, and Fungi, which " must be regarded only as an attempt 

 to gather together the Hertfordshire records of cellular cryptogams. " 



Mr. Pry or was a strong advocate of the division of districts in 

 accordance with the river-basins, and this plan, originally proposed 

 by Coleman in the previous Flora, is here more fully adopted. As 

 a natural result, the extent of the various districts is very different: 

 Thame and Brent being very small (though the latter is very 

 interesting), while Colne and Lea between them include nearly the 

 whole of the county. The six divisions are grouped under two 

 main heads, Ouse and Thames, the former including the small 

 divisions of Cam and Ivel, the latter the four named above. 



It is much to be regretted that the Hertfordshire Society, which 

 was materially benefitted at Mr. Pryor's decease, has not published 

 a fuller biography than the sketch given at pp. xliv — xlvi. A copy 

 of an excellent portrait, taken not long before his death, might well 

 have faced the title page ; and an example of his characteristic 

 letters might have been added. No reference is made to the careful 

 manner in which Mr. Pryor personally examined the various 

 districts, nor is even a list of his publications appended. These seem 

 to me serious omissions. 



It was my privilege to accompany Mr. Pryor on three of the 

 " jaunts, " as he used to call them, undertaken for the purpose of 

 examining the plants of the country. His custom was to make some 

 place a centre for two or three days, taking walks in different 

 directions, and carefully noting what was seen. In the evening his 

 memoranda were transcribed into one or more of his numerous 

 note-books, and doubtful plants examined. Recalling some of 

 these rambles, and the plants met with, I am inclined to think that 

 some of those books must have been lost, or that their contents were 

 not again entered by him in the quarto MS. books which contained 

 the Flora. Be this as it may, there is no record in the volume of 

 localities of certain plants which we noted together — of Cerastium 

 arvense, for instance, which we tracked at Aldbury Owers from 

 Buckinghamshire just into Herts, on an occasion when we vainly 

 endeavoured to find Pulsatilla on the Buckingham side of the 

 boundary ; of Myosurm minimus, which we picked up in a cornfield 

 near Tring station, during an after-dinner stroll on a bleak bright 

 evening of May, 1876 ; and many more. Mr. Pryor's herbarium 

 was very small, so that specimens of his gatherings are nowhere 

 very largely represented ; a considerable number, however, are in 

 the British Museum Herbarium. 



The appendix of "additional published localities with a few 

 hitherto unpublished " (for which, of course, Mr. Pryor is in no 

 way responsible) contains some matter for remark. The locality 

 given for Pulsatilla vulgaris is Herts in New Bot. Guide, as 

 "Ashley" is annotated "probably Ashley Green in Bucks." If so, 

 it is new to the county. An old Rayan plant — " Alsine montana 



