HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 121 
1798. The first edition of the Flora Anglica, in one vol., 
appeared in 1762, the second, in two vols., in 1778. Two 
other editions were published after his death. 
The first edition contains many local records ; the second is 
much more copious in this respect; it yields, nevertheless, two 
only relating to the County of Worcester, viz.:— 
“ Scirpus romanus,” pp. 19—20. “Habitat in palustribus juxta 
Throgmorton in agro Worcesterensi. Revd. D. Sheffield.” 
* “ Campanula patula,” pp. 95—96. “ Prope Worcester.” 
As I shall often have occasion to repeat the names of 
plants previously recorded it will be convenient to mark such 
names with an asterisk (*;, in order that they may be dis¬ 
tinguished from new County records. I shall also mark with 
a dagger (f) records which, in my judgment, are undeserving 
of credit. 
The discovery of Scirpus romanus, a small form of S. 
Holosclioenus, L., at Throckmorton near Fladbury, by Dr. 
Sheffield, has been discredited by the late Hewett C. Watson,* 
but, as it seems to me, without sufficient reason. Its dis¬ 
coverer, the Revd. William Sheffield, D.D., was Keeper of 
the Aslimolean Museum from 1772 to 1795, and Provost of 
Worcester College, Oxford, from 1777 to 1795. It is most 
unlikely that Hudson would have recorded so rare a plant 
unless he had been convinced of its identity, either by the 
sight of an actual specimen or from knowing that he could 
trust his correspondent. 
We now pass to the honoured name of William Withering, 
one of the most eminent of British Botanists. From his time 
Botany became the study of the Physician rather than of the 
Apothecary. He was born at Wellington in Shropshire in 
1741, passed the greater part of his life in Birmingham, where 
he was the principal physician, and died there in 1799. He 
lived for many years at Edgbaston Hall, a residence still 
situated in a well-timbered and picturesque park, close to the 
edge of the town. The first edition of his well-known 
“ Botanical arrangement of British Plants ,” in two vols., was 
published in 1776, the second, in three vols., in 1787, the 
third in four vols., in 1796. It passed through five further 
editions, in four vols., after his death. The edition of 1776 
contains few local records, and none relating to Worcester, 
and we might at once pass to the second edition were it not 
necessary, for the preservation of chronological sequence, to 
introduce the name of another author. 
* Cybele Britannica, Vol. III., p. 71. 
