17 



flowering plants, ferns, and horsetails, with the London catalogue 

 of British plants, Part I., as our guide. This useful little book 

 aims at giving a fairly accurate list of plants. The last edition, 

 the eighth, is dated 1886, and the editor is Mr. F. Hanbury. It 

 is based on the " Genera Plantarum," a great work completed only 

 a few years ago. The first edition was issued in 1844, and the list 

 has gone on lengthening. Edition seven, published in 1874, 

 reaches 1665 flowering plants, ferns, and horsetails ; but the eighth 

 edition gives 1821, besides many varieties — an increase of 156. 

 To account for this increase, and get much information as well, 

 read the " Explanations " of the editor. I have ticked off as actually 

 found about 698 species and varieties. Taking some of the 

 strongest natural orders, as far as British plants are concerned, I 

 am able to give the following statement, which may be fairly 

 correct. The plants, as to their habitat, may be classed as " chalk," 

 ' fluviatile," " sylvan," " bog," and " marine." Such as occur on 

 the top of the Downs are only dwarfed forms of plants that grow at 

 a lower level : — 



Plants numbered in the Catalogue for Plants found in this 



the whole of Britain. neighbourhood. 



Compositae 169 62 



Graminacae 135 60 



Rosacese 129 23 



Cyporaceae 106 25 



Leguminosse 87 51 



Cvuciferge 83 25 



Caryophvlleae 69 32 



Umbelliferee 69 75 



LabiatfE 61 28 



Scvophulariacese 59 26 



Pilices 50 14 



Eanunculaceae 46 21 



Orchidese 44 20 



Naidacete 43 6 



Linaceae .' 36 7 



Salicinese 35 7 



Polygonaceae 32 12 



Juncaceae 30 9 



Chenopodiaceae 26 11 



Boragineae 26 13 



Saxifrageae 24 5 



Geraniaceae 23 10 



Primulacese 21 11 



Bubiacese 19 12 



Ericaceae 19 4 



Six of these orders are mono-cotyledonous, and it will be seen that, 

 excepting grasses and orchids, they are all poorly represented. 

 The terms " common," " frequent," or " rare " are very convenient 

 to put after the name of a plant, and other terms, such as "an 

 alien," a " casual weed," " an introduced plant," or " indigenous," 

 as the case may be, have their value to the student. Some of the 

 returns are good, as, for instance, the 62 out of 169, the 60 out of 

 135, and especially the 51 out of 87. In several cases nearly half 

 the British species are with us, in others a much smaller propor- 

 tion. The 23 Rosaceous plants out of 129 are explainable, for the 

 one genus Rubus (Blackberry) is credited in the London Catalogue 



