164 Ow the Advancement of Local Botany near London. 



both my objects have been realized to a greater extent than had been 

 expected. Contributors without number have kindly lent their assist- 

 ance towards the accomplishment of the first object, and the second 

 has already manifested itself by the formation of the " Botanical So- 

 ciety of London." That local botany is attracting- more notice daily 

 throug-hout the kingdom, is evident from the number of local floras 

 of late years published, and valuable, indeed, they are to the naturalist, 

 — if we consider the immensity of labour, trouble, and time, spared 

 to the lover of nature for other pursuits. 



The rapid formation of the Botanical Society of London aifords a 

 still greater proof of the progress of that department of science, since 

 we find that out of seventy members elected since its formation, 

 (29th Nov. 1836,) two-thirds at least devote the major part of their 

 time to practical botany. That a society embracing the objects it 

 does, has been long a desideratum in the metropolis, cannot be denied, 

 and is evident from the number of its members, and also from the va- 

 rious important memoirs that have been brought forward relating to 

 subjects deserving the attention not only of the practical, but the 

 physiological and geographical botanist. 



I shall now offer some views respecting the formation of plans, ex- 

 hibiting the actual flora of the vicinity of, or in, any particular loca- 

 lity, in order that the botanist, at a glance of a map or plan of such 

 a locality, would be enabled with greater facility to arrive at or near 

 the spot where any species have been observed to grow. The 

 first idea of this nature was brought before the Botanical Society 

 of London on the 5th January 1837, illustrating a paper which I 

 read on the distribution of plants in one of our principal localities in 

 the immediate vicinity of London, — a locality for years celebrated for 

 the profuse supply of specimens it has yielded to the naturalist. I 

 allude to Battersea Fields, the spot where most of our ancestors and 

 ourselves have often rambled with so much profit and delight. In 

 the subsequent part of this paper, I shall give in a table the number 

 of genera and species found in various localities. 



In producing plans of this kind, there is but one objection, 

 viz. that many botanists of the present day are not content with 

 collecting one, or even half-a-dozen specimens, more particularly 

 if the plant is of uncommon occurrence, and I have known instances, 

 where whole species have been rooted out by the eagerness and ava- 

 rice of the collector. Such measures ought not to be adopted to the 

 destruction of the habitats of species. If the plants are annuals it is 

 doing injustice to the rising generation of botanists ; if they are hien- 



