CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



27 



day, botanists consider all those plants indigenous to a country, 

 which have existed in it beyond the memory of man or the 

 existence of written records, and which propagate themselves 

 freely by seed, without human agency. 



The reputed native plants of Britain have been enumerated 

 and described by different botanical authors : but it will be of 

 little practical use in this case, and in the others which will come 

 before us, to quote from any author who wrote previously to the 

 time of Linnaeus ; and who, of course, could not adopt his ad- 

 mirable system of giving plants specific names composed of two 

 words, instead of short Latin descriptions. The first author 

 who enumerated the plants of England, and applied the Linnsean 

 specific names, was Hudson, in his Flora Anglica, published in 

 1762 ; and those of Scotland were first described by Lightfoot, 

 in his Flora Scotica, in 1775. Those of Ireland were first 

 enumerated by Threlkeld, in 1727, before the Linngean system 

 was adopted, and there has not yet been any other flora of the 

 country than a list published by Mr. T. Mackay in 1825. For- 

 tunately, however, there are two recent works, the English Flora 

 of Sir J. E. Smith, and the British Flora of Dr. Hooker, which 

 contain an enumeration and description of all the plants indige- 

 nous to the British Isles, and from them we have compiled the 

 following enumeration. In it are included all the plants, con- 

 sidered by botanists as ligneous, which grow in the British 

 Islands, exclusive of varieties. 



To such as are considered by many persons as doubtful 

 natives, we have prefixed, not the point of interrogation used to 

 signify botanical doubts, but the letters qu. 



Ranunculdcea;. Clematis Vitalba, a deciduous climber. 



Berberideae. Berheris vulgaris, a deciduous shrub, 10 ft. 

 high. 



CistinecE. Helianthemum warifolium, surrejanum, vulgare, 

 toment^sum, and ^oliif51ium, evergreen prostrate shrubs, from 

 6 in. to 1 ft. in height. 



Tilidcecr. Tilia europse^a qu., a deciduous tree, 50 ft.; gran- 

 difolia (syn. platyphylla) qu., a deciduous tree, 50 ft.; parvifolia, 

 a deciduous tree, 30 ft. 



Hyperictnece. ^ndrosse^mum officinale, a deciduous under- 

 shrub, 4 ft. ; ii/ypericum calycinum qu., an evergreen under- 

 shrub, 1 ft. 



KcerinecB. A^cer campestre, a deciduous tree, 20ft. high; 

 and A, Pseudo-Platanus qu., a deciduous tree, 50 ft. high. 



Celastrmea. i^u6nymus europae^us, a deciduous tree, from 

 15ft. to 20 ft. high. 



llicmecs. 71ex ^quifolium, an evergreen tree, 30 ft. high. 



StaphyledcecE. Staphylea pinnata qu., a deciduous shrub, 

 from 10 ft. to 15 ft. high. 



*c 7 



