The British Flora. 97 



science of the day- Macgillivray's work follows the Linnean ar- 

 rangement, is popular through its title, and, in its utility to students, 

 may be fairly enough classed with. its three competitors, though 

 wanting the authority which an established botanical name, in the 

 author, gives to each of the others. 



We have entered into these particulars with a view of showing 

 the relation, if it may be so expressed, which the several Floras bear 

 to each other, and for supplying hints to persons desirous of select- 

 ing only one or two ; as it cannot usually happen that the same per- 

 son should require all of them. Macgillivray's is the most elemen- 

 tary ; Lindley's is the only one entirely arranged according to the 

 natural system ; Hooker's may safely be said to contain the best and 

 fullest description of species among these three ; while the English 

 Flora, to full descriptions of the genera and species, unites the most 

 complete set of references and synonyms ; and, though in its full 

 size the most expensive, its Compendium is the least so. 



The advances made in our acquaintance with British plants since 

 the publication of the first volumes of the English Flora, are consi- 

 derable. When the fourth volume was published, seven additional 

 species were added for the earlier volumes. The first edition of the 

 British Flora, published two years later, in 1830, added about a score 

 of others. The second edition, in 1831, contained seven or eight 

 more, and the last edition increases the lists by above a dozen species. 

 Five or six others are now known ; so that, in the last ten or twelve 

 years, about fifty species have been added to our list of flowering 

 plants, and the additions to the cryptogamic lists may be reckoned by 

 hundreds. But our readers must not imagine that fifty undisputedly 

 native species of flowering plants have been discovered during this 

 period. In fact, scarcely the half of this number can be regarded as 

 fixed species and undoubted natives; and even some of these had been 

 heretofore found, though mistaken or forgotten. Among the most in- 

 teresting and least questionable additions, may be instanced Isnar- 

 dia palustris, Orobanche caryophyllacea, Erica mediterranea, Erica 

 ciliaris, Elatine hydropiper, Carex Vahlii, Potamogeton prselongus, 

 Statice plantaginea, Astragalus alpinus, and Trifolium resupinatum. — 

 ButPinguiculaalpina, Cotoneaster vulgaris, Scirpus Savii, Silene ita- 

 lica, Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, and, probably, Habenaria chlorantha, 

 had been previously observed and mistaken for other species. Trago- 

 pogon major, Oenanthe apiifolia, Fedia eriocarpa, Fedia mixta, Rosa 

 Wilsoni, and others, appear scarcely entitled to rank higher than va- 

 rieties. Asperula arvensis, Althaea hirsuta, and Lepidium draba 

 should be looked upon as introduced species. 



NO. I. G 



