THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Of all the districts into which England is divided by boun- 

 daries, either natural or political, there is perhaps no one that 

 offers a more interesting or promising field for botanical 

 research than the Isle of Wight ; yet, singular as it may ap- 

 pear, hardly any spot |of equal extent, within the same distance 

 from the metropolis, has received so small a share of attention, 

 despite the allurements of scenery, its now flourishing places of 

 public resort, and the facility of access, which the frequency of 

 steam communication with the opposite shores holds out as 

 inducements to visitors. Its situation, on the same parallel with 

 the most southerly counties of England, insures it as genial a 

 climate as the latitude will admit of; and, lying, as it does, con- 

 tiguous to, and at nearly equal distances from, the eastern and 

 western extremities of the mainland, its Flora participates in 

 the form peculiar to each of these two longitudinal sections.* 



* Of species predominant in the East of England, we find Thesium lino- 

 •phyllum, Melampyrum arvense, Galium tricome, Myosurus minimus, Spartina 

 striata, Calamagrostis Epigejos, Bryonia dioica, Cineraria campeslris (P), jR/iam- 

 nus calharticus, Linaria minor, L. spuria, L. Elatine, Antirrhinum Orontium, 

 Euphorbia platyphylla, Althcea officinalis, Asperula cynanchica, Ranunculus 

 Lingua, Specularia hybrida. Campanula Trachelium and C. glomerata, JBupleu- 

 rum rotundifolium and B. tenuissimum, Franhenia Itevis, Typha angustifolia, 

 Chenopodium glaucum, Trifolium sublerraneum, Pulicaria vulgaris, &c. ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, of plants that chiefly affect the western side of the kingdom, 

 we meet with Rubia peregrina, Iris fcelidissima, Corydalis claviculata, Gastri- 

 dium lendigerum, Briza minor, Scirpus Sivii, Androscemum officinale, Wahlen- 

 bergia hederacea, Coronopus didyma, Linaria repens, Euphorbia portlandica 

 and E. Peplis, Ping-uicula lusitanica, Cyperus longus, Anthemis nobilis. Cotyle- 

 don Umbilicus, &c. 



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