OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 8 1 



has of late years been more sedulously cultivated." H. C. 

 Watson, writing thirty years later (New Botanists' Guide, vol. i., 

 p. 319), says, "Mr. Winch's exertions and different works 

 have made us better acquainted with the botany of the 

 extreme north of England than we are with that of any other 

 equally extensive portion of the country ; and he may fairly 

 claim the credit of having done most to advance the know- 

 ledge of local botany." Beginning with the country round 

 Newcastle, he extended his explorations to Teesdale in 1799, 

 and to Cheviot in 1804. In 1803 he was elected a Fellow of 

 the Linnaean Society. " The Botanists' Guide through the 

 counties of Northumberland and Durham," the first volume of 

 which was pubhshed in 1805 (the preface being signed N. J. 

 Winch, John Thornhill, Richard Waugh), and the second in 

 1807, contains localities for upwards of 900 Flowering Plants 

 and Ferns, 180 Mosses, 28 Hepaticse, 256 Lichens, 128 Algae, 

 and 318 Fungi. In naming the Mosses and Lichens he had 

 the help of Turner, and, in the Lichens, of Acharius. At the 

 present time, taking Mr. Watson's estimate of the Flowering 

 Plants and Ferns of the whole of Britain at 1,435, about 950 

 can be claimed as natives of the two counties, excluding, of 

 course, the 150 ballast plants. About 1806 the three authors 

 of the Botanists' Guide presented to the Natural History and 

 Philosophical Society of Newcastle a herbarium of 700 species, 

 arranged after Sir J. E. Smith's " Flora Britannica." He 

 corresponded also with Smith, Withering, and Sowerby, and 

 added to the British flora Fryrola media and Eryfhrcea 

 littoralis. His " Essay on the Geographical distribution of 

 plants through the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, 

 and Durham," was published, the first edition in 1819, and the 

 second in 1825, This was translated into German in the 20th 

 volume of the periodical called the "Flora" in 1837. His 

 magnum opus " The Flora of Northumberland and Durham " 

 (159 pages quarto) was laid before the Natural History Society 

 in 183 r, and the final "Addenda" carry up the information to 

 1836. Besides he published 22 smaller papers, several of 

 which relate to geology, a list of which will be found in the 



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