12 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
as many vascular plants as grasses in these districts, or ra- 
ther in an average of all the districts together. Also the 
Compositae bear nearly the same relative proportion to the 
rest, as the grasses do, or rather greater. In the above men- 
tioned Floras they are as one-eleventh, or a little more. 
Now the Compositae seen by me growing in the vicinity of 
London, together with a few seen by other judicious collec- 
tors, amount to ninety ; which, at the proportion of one to 
eleven, would give nine hundred and ninety species; and al- 
lowing for the excess of the other species, above eleven times 
the Compositae, about one thousand would be the result. 
Perhaps all that order has not as yet been observed. Several 
of the London species, in my Catalogues, are such as have 
rarely been seen in these parts, some of them were never 
before noticed as London plants, and a few are new to the 
Flora of this country. Were each gentleman, connected with 
this Society, to contribute his information on the subject in 
question, there is no doubt that the Lendon Flora would far 
exceed in number of species, accuracy, and abundance of 
localities, every Local Flora of the country. By contributing 
to such a work, the members of the London Botanical So- 
ciety would both furnish the student with a most desirable 
hand-book, and also record their own knowledge of the 
science. In order to accomplish this undertaking with the 
utmost minuteness and dispatch, printed lists of species 
should be circulated among the Botanists of the metropolitan 
districts, or elsewhere. Such lists having columns for the in- 
sertion of the precise habitation of the species, the nature of 
the soil where it grows, the altitude of its locality, the time 
of flowering, and such like. 
The work might be so arranged, that in addition to the 
Botanical description of the genera and species found grow- 
ing within this limited tract, the remaining British genera 
and species might be added, with short notes of their specific 
differences. By this means the work would answer all the 
practical uses of a British Flora, with the greater facility of 
reference afforded by a district Flora. By curtailing the des- 
criptions, and using a small type, all the genera and species 
of the Continental Floras, not belonging to this country, but 
in the same latitude, might be inserted, along with as many 
of the exotic orders and genera as arc without representa- 
tives in this country ; at least such as are commonly culti- 
vated in our gardens and greenhouses or used for medicinal 
preparations. A Flora constructed on these, or similar prin- 
