PREFACE. Vv 
My. F, T. Richards, Mr. Bolton King, Rev. F. Bennett, Rev. E.. 
Fox, Mr. H. Ridley, Mr. F. Arnold Lees, and Mr. J. Bagnall. 
The Rev. W. W. Newbould, Mr. J. G. Baker, Mr. Arth. Ben- 
nett, and Mr. J. Britten have given advice and assistance with 
characteristic generosity. 
The Rev. F. Bennett and Mr. H. Boswell kindly assisted in 
revising the proof sheets. 
In the absence of plates (which would have caused too 
great an expense), I would point out to residents in Oxford 
that on the reference shelves in the Camera is Syme’s ‘ English 
Botany,’ which gives figures of almost all the plants referred to. 
When such is the case, the volume, page and plate, are quoted 
in the Flora. Unfortunately I was unable to check these 
numbers until the book was nearly through the press, so that 
several numbers require correction. These are given in the 
list of errata. 
I can only express my wish that the compilation of this work 
had been entrusted to abler hands, and to one with more 
leisure at command, but no pains have been spared in con- 
sulting the Botanical literature of the last three centuries 
in search of Oxford references, or during more congenial hours 
(snatched from an engrossing business) in completing the task of 
visiting the 300 parishes of the county, to get together records 
of plant distribution which, imperfect though they may be in 
themselves, may yet serve as a framework for a more worthy 
structure. I trust that although errors must have crept in, 
that they are not sufficiently numerous to materially affect the 
accuracy of the work. 
My labour will be quite repaid if Botany be recruited by 
a single disciple, or if to one of the many brain workers of 
this intellectual centre it may suggest the healthful and re- 
storative influences exerted by a botanical walk through the 
lovely woods of the chalk downs, or in the more prosaic but 
