377 
WHERNSIDE IN RELATION TO MID -WEST (64) 
AND NORTH-WEST (65) YORKSHIRE. 
W. H. BURRELL, F.L.S. 
Force Gill, Greensett Moss, Great Blake Gill, Deepdale and 
other parts of Whernside have lately received attention from 
the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, and in determining for 
which division of the county certain interesting plants should 
be recorded, it became necessary to consult the original 
statement of the lines of separation which Watson took to 
divide the larger counties into two or more vice-counties. 
The three county Floras and much local work are based on 
the Ridings, but the Watsonian vice-counties are officially 
recognised by the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, and a short 
account of their inception may be of interest. 
For the census of the comparative frequency of flowering 
plants, the British Islands were divided into eighteen 
provinces, described in Vol. I., Cybele Britannica, 1847 > 
the need for smaller districts was acknowledged, the author 
stating that with increasing knowledge, the census would be 
founded on counties or smaller sections, but at the time 
that degree of exactness could not be reached ; the work 
was completed in 1852, and in Vol. III. a second map was 
published, showing the further division of the British Islands 
into one hundred and twelve vice-counties, based upon 
county boundaries, but without a verbal description. 
In Vol. IV. (1859), which was a summary of the first 
three volumes, a verbal description of the vice-counties was 
given, the Humber province being treated as follows : — 
‘ The great county of York is first divided into two sub- 
pro vinces of East and West Humber by the Rivers Humber, 
Ouse and Wiske. South-East and North-East Yorkshire 
are then separated by the political line which divides the 
East Riding from the rest of the county, that part of the 
East Riding situate westward of the Ouse being taken as 
part of the Mid-West vice-county. South-West and Mid- 
West Yorkshire are separated by the Leeds and Liverpool 
Canal and by the Aire below Leeds. Mid-West and North- 
West Yorkshire are separated by the political boundary 
between the North and West Ridings ; that boundary being 
deflected westward so as to pass over Whernside to the South- 
East angle of Westmorland in conformity with the watershed.’ 
In Topographical Botany (Second Edition, 1883), edited by 
J. G. Baker and W. W. Newbold, the author said (page xlii.) : 
The lines of separation which are taken to divide the larger 
counties into two or more vice-counties cannot be sufficiently 
made out on the small map, and it may be useful to repeat 
1922 Dec. 1 
