THE BOTANY OF THE BATH DISTRICT. 



W. G. Wheatcroft. 



'T'HE neighbourhood of Bath offers many attractions to 

 the botanist. So long ago as the reign of James I. 

 Matthias de Lobel, who styled himself " Botanist to King 

 James,'' published his " Stirpium Historia," in which certain 

 plants found in the Bath district are enumerated. A few 

 species are mentioned in CoUinson's " History of Somerset," 

 published in 179 1. A longer list of the rarer plants, by 

 Mr. Sole, was appended to Warner's "History of Bath," 

 published in 1798. Mr. Sole, a former resident in this city, 

 was a distinguished botanist in his day. In the year 1798 

 he published an important work on the " Mints of Great 

 Britain," illustrated by 24 engravings, many of which, as we 

 are informed, " were taken from Bath specimens.'' Mr. Sole 

 likewise wrote a valuable work on " The English Grasses." 

 It appears that this latter book was never published. A 

 single copy belonging to the Bath and West of England 

 Agricultural Society, in the keeping of the Bath Literary 

 and Scientific Society, is, as we are informed, by the 

 Rev. Leonard Blomefield,* probably the only copy extant. 

 The same veteran naturalist also tells us " that a large 

 number of these grasses appear to have been gathered 

 in the neighbourhood of Bath." In a small edition of 

 Warner's " History of Bath," a list of Bath plants, contain- 



* The Rev. Leonard Blomefield, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., will be better 

 known to many by the name of the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, the author of 

 " A Manual of British Vertebrate Animals," and other works. 



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