lviii INTRODUCTION. 



" (Fumaria, Eng. Bot. t. 588) " means, that the species is figured in ' English 

 Botany ' under the name of Fumaria lutea, the specific name not being different 

 is not repeated in the reference. In these synonyms, as such references are 

 commonly called, Hooker and Arnott's ' British Flora ' is designated by the 

 abbreviation Brit. Fl. The references to ' English Botany ' repeated from the 

 former edition of the Handbook were retained in the early numbers of the pre- 

 sent one chiefly as synonyms, and have been continued for the sake of uni- 

 formity, although their utility has been much diminished, as well by the figures 

 of every species now introduced into our text, as by the new edition of * English 

 Botany ' now publishing, in which the plants are systematically arranged. Po- 

 pular names of the species are also included in the same parenthesis. 



The synonyms are followed by a paragraph describing the species. In these 

 descriptions it will be observed that when another species of the same genus is 

 referred to, the generic name is, for shortness, indicated by its initial letter, and 

 the specific one is printed in italics, to avoid confusion with a descriptive 

 epithet. Thus under the Yellow Thalictrum, "fewer than in the lesser T." 

 means, fewer than in the species called the Lesser Thalictrum. 



The next paragraph contains : 1st, The indication of the geographical area 

 of the species. This has only been done in a very general manner, and more 

 especially with regard to its distribution in countries the nearest to Britain ; 

 for it would have been quite foreign to the purpose of this work to attempt to 

 fix, with any precision, the limits of the areas remote from Britain. Generally 

 speaking, the species indicated as extending to southern Europe penetrate 

 more or less into Africa : if reaching the Caucasus, they often advance more 

 or less into Persia and Arabia, etc. 2ndly, The distribution in Britain. These 

 are also given in general terms, the object being to give the reader some indi- 

 cation whether the species to which he refers the plant he has been examining, 

 is likely to have been growing in the place where he found his specimen. Direc- 

 tions to precise localities occupy too much space for any but very local 

 Floras, or Botanists' Guide-books. Exceptions are of course made for plants 

 only known in a single locality. In all these indications Britain is meant to 

 include Ireland. The Channel Island plants are only mentioned when they are 

 not also found on the main British Isles. 



These stations are followed, in the same paragraph, by the period of flower- 

 ing, printed in italics. The season is generally given rather than the month, as 

 the flowering of plants always varies with the season. A spring flower which 

 may appear in the beginning of March in a favoured situation on the south 

 coast of England, may not open till May in the Highlands of Scotland. These 

 periods of flowering, derived from personal observation or from the best sources 

 I had at hand, must however betaken with considerable allowance, for they are 

 liable to much variation, according to local or temporary influences ; and at any 

 rate they can never be depended on for specific distinctions. In general, spring 

 flowers may be said to blow in March, April, or May, in the south of Engand ; 

 summer flowers in June, July, or part of August ; autumnal ones in the end 

 of August, September, or part of October. After the middle of October, and 

 until the beginning of March, there are but few besides occasional stragglers in 

 flower : towards the North, the flow T ering season is much shorter, and parti- 

 cularly the early flowers open later. 



Observations on varieties, etc., are reserved for the conclusion of the para- 

 graph. The plants described as species in the ' British Flora,' or in the 'Manual 

 of British Botany,' and not adopted as such in the present work, are mentioned 

 or referred to either in these concluding observations or among the synonyms 

 immediately under the specific name. All other species inserted in the above 

 works and not included or alluded to in the present one, are omitted, because 

 they are believed not to grow wild in the British Isles. 



