PREFACE. 
Tus Volume was printed in three successive Parts 
in the years 1868, 1869, 1870; the manuscript for the 
several portions having been prepared chiefly in the 
years preceding those dates. Attention to the dates 
is requested, because they will shew that the earlier 
pages of the volume could scarcely take into account 
any facts ascertained or records made later than 1867; 
although in the pages last printed some few discoveries 
and records even of 1870 have been noted while the 
proof sheets passed through hand. The additions given 
under the head of ‘‘ Notes and Corrections,’ on pages 
606—615, will bring the whole volume nearly up to 
actual knowledge about British plants and their dis- 
tribution at the beginning of 1870. 
The Author’s personal experiences in British botany 
may be said to extend over most of the forty years 
preceding the last mentioned date. In course of those 
years he has observed and collected plants in many 
different counties, from Cornwall and Kent southwards 
to Sutherland and Caithness northwards, from the: 
coast line to the summits of the highest hills. But 
most of his botanical ramblings were done in years 
before the railways had grown into such a network 
of locomotive facilities as they now afford for botanical 
purposes. Thus, while much was seen, much also has 
remained unseen by him; advancing age and other 
conditions having latterly interfered to render him 
