INTRODUCTION. 
XI 
plant-names and defects will be detected, and we shall esteem it a 
favour still to have them pointed out to us, so that corrections and 
additions may be entered in a future edition, should one be required. 
It will be observed that some counties are very sparingly repre- 
sented ; also that many names are given as if restricted to two or 
three districts, whilst they are really in much more general use than 
this would seem to imply. A reference to a county placed after a 
name signifies that we know the name is used in that county, but it 
must not be supposed to imply that its use is necessarily restricted 
to the district indicated. 
The principal works which have been consulted, and from which 
quotations have been made, and the abbreviations used in indicating 
them in the body of the work, appear in a separate list, which is 
unfortunately printed on the first sheet of the Dictionary, and 
therefore cannot now be replaced by one corrected up to the 
present date. Since the publication of the first part many other 
works have been consulted, and it has therefore been necessary to 
print an additional list. With respect to the names included in the 
Dictionary, we have always endeavoured to give a reference to their 
earliest occurrence in print ; but defects in the carrying out of this 
plan have doubtless occurred. We have not attempted to include 
systematically tbe various lists of plant-names existing only in manu- 
scripts written prior to the invention of printing ; although when 
these have subsequently been printed (as in the ‘ Promptorium 
Parvulorum ’ and in Cockayne’s ‘ Leechdoms ’) we have frequently 
quoted and referred to them. We have not felt it desirable to 
attempt an explanation of all, or indeed of the majority of the 
names we include. Many speak for themselves ; many have been 
ably and exhaustively investigated in Dr. Prior’s work; and some do 
not, with our present knowledge, appear capable of explanation. We 
have, however, added explanatory notes wherever local information 
enabled us to do so satisfactorily ; and we have occasionally com- 
mented upon some of the derivations given by Dr. Prior. To tbe 
second edition of his work, which must always be regarded as the 
standard authority upon English plant-names philologically con- 
sidered, a reference is made after each name which he includes, for 
