Copy 1, Volume 1

The new botanist's guide to the localities of the rarer plants of Britain ; on the plan of Turner and Dillwyn's Botanist's guide / By Hewett Cottrell Watson.

  • Hewett Watson
Date:
1835-37
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The new botanist's guide to the localities of the rarer plants of Britain ; on the plan of Turner and Dillwyn's Botanist's guide / By Hewett Cottrell Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 THE NEW BOTANIST’S GUIDE. England, and the northern counties of Scotland, the very same species, rare or wanting in the one, become the common weeds of the other ; so that comparatively few species can be called common or rare in every part of Britain. Under these circumstances, a Botanical Guide, which is intended for the general use of British botanists, must necessarily include many species that are common over some part of the island, and also exclude others that may be rare or wanting locally. If too _many of the locally rare species be admitted, the bulk and cost of the work are enhanced more than its utility; and if too few be allowed admission, it becomes of only limited assistance to the botanist, whether athome or a tourist. Who, then, shall decide on the selection of species? Certainly not they whose observations on the vegetation of Britain have been chiefly or exclusively directed to a limited area. Yet I have little hesi- tation in affirming, that such are most apt to cavil at the appli- cation of the words rare and common by others, and most apt to apply them injudiciously. My own opportunities of studying the distribution of plants in Britain have referred to a wide area (Cornwall to Caith- ness) ; and joining to personal observation a considerable accumulation of published and unpublished data, I confess myself yet quite unable to decide on the comparative rarity or frequency of many species. Still, it may be presumed that some approximation must have been made towards correct ideas on the subject ; but it cannot be expected that others should entirely coincide with, or succumb to, the views of any one individual. Accordingly, I have sought some ¢est of the rarity of species (by which is to be understood either circum- scribed extension, or paucity of specimens, one or both) ; and, after trying several others, one founded on the frequency of their occurrence in our published Local Floras has been adopted, being that which came nearest to my own conclusions from general observation. Twelve of such Floras have been used, namely, those for Devon, Bath, Tunbridge Wells, Oxford, Bedford, Cambridge, Anglesea, Northumberland and Durham, Berwick-on-T weed, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Lanark.* Out of 1500 species (more or fewer according to the criterions adopted) admitted as British, only 312 occur in every one of these Floras ; 101 * At the time of making the necessary ‘comparisons, I was not in possession of the Natural History of Yarmouth, which includes a Flora.
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