XVI 11 
INTRODUCTION 
PLAN OF THE FLORA 
Groups higher than species 
Each group of plants of higher than specific rank is given a central heading in which the rank, 
number, and the name of the group are stated. This is followed by a paragraph of citations and 
synonyms beginning with the name of the group printed in thick type. The name of the group is 
followed by the authority and the place of publication in which the name first appeared, and by the 
names of some authorities (if any) who have used this name or a synonym of it, and the places of 
publication where these authorities used the names. Throughout the work the names of synonyms 
and the titles of publications are printed in italics. Dates of publications are given wherever possible. 
The date is placed in brackets, and the number before the brackets refers to the page of the publication 
on which the name appears, unless this number is preceded by a reference to a tablet or plate, 
when the page is given before the tablet-number. When a page-number is placed in brackets, 
the signification is that only an offprint, and not the original copy of the work, has been seen. 
Unfortunately offprints have often a different pagination from the original work. 
The paragraph of synonymy is followed by a botanical description of the group, or by a 
reference to the page where the description occurs. 
In the case of orders, families, and genera, the size and distribution of the group are briefly 
indicated. 
Notes, in small type, are sometimes added in separate paragraphs following the description. 
Pre-Linnaean names of genera and pre-Linnaean authorities of modern genera are placed 
between square brackets. 
Species 
In the case of species, the central heading consists of the number of the species in its genus, 
of the specific name, of the common name (if any), and of references to plates (if any) in the 
present work. The numbers of plates which refer to hybrids are placed after a semicolon. 
Different kinds of headings are used for species. Some are included within square 
brackets : this means that the plants in question have very little, if any, claim to be regarded 
as British. Others are preceded by an asterisk : the plants so indicated are not indigenous but 
are more or less definitely naturalised. Still others are preceded by an obelisk : these are doubt- 
fully indigenous. The rest of the species are, in our opinion, indigenous members of the British 
flora or so thoroughly established as weeds of cultivation that they are in practice indistinguishable 
from indigenous species. 
After the heading, pre-Linnaean synonyms are sometimes added. These do not pretend to 
be in any way complete, nor is the first authority for the name necessarily given. The object 
of these names is, as a rule, merely to give an indication of the history of knowledge of the 
species in the British Islands. 
Then follows a paragraph of synonymy on the lines outlined above. 
A paragraph is then devoted to references to icones or illustrations (if any). Mr Hunnybun’s 
plates illustrating the present work are then explained ; and the county from which the specimen 
figured was obtained and the initials of the sender of the specimen are added wherever possible. 
References to exsiccata or dried herbarium specimens follow in the next paragraph, a note 
sometimes being added relating to a critical specimen. 
The description of the species follows ; and the same kind of type is used for descriptions of 
all grades of plants throughout the work. 
Varieties and formae , and distribution 
The species may be subdivided into smaller groups : the latter are not given a central 
heading ; but the name is printed in thick type, smaller however than the thick type used for 
the names of species and of the larger groups. The name is again followed by references to 
synonyms, icones, and exsiccata, by the description, and (where possible) by the distribution. 
The distribution of groups of lower than specific rank and of non-indigenous species is printed in 
smaller type than the distribution of the native species and of the higher groups. 
