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BOTANY THE object in the following pages is to give a general idea of what species form the native vegetation of the county, what species have been introduced through the agency of man or animals, the essential differences existing between the flora of Northamptonshire and some of the bordering counties, to describe briefly the districts based on the river drainage, into which the county has been divided for botanical purposes, and to make some reference to the botanists who have worked at the county flora, and to whose exer- tions so much of our knowledge of it is due. The following tables show the number of species which have been reported on good authority to have been seen growing in a wild state in the counties surrounding Northamptonshire, as well as those compiled for our county by myself Northamptonshire Warwickshire Leicestershire Bucks Oxfordshire Native plants . .765 Denizens ... 28 Colonists . • • 37 817 42 46 756 26 29 810 25 34 847 49 43 830 905 811 869 939 If we follow fairly closely the specific limitations adopted in the ninth edition of the London Catalogue of British Plants,^ which puts the total number of British plants at 1,958, and make allowance for the species added since that date, we may roughly say that the British flora contains about 2,000 plants, but of these nearly 250 are not native species, 144 are confined to the neighbourhood of the sea, while at least 200 are species, either of northern latitudes, or are not found so far south as Northamptonshire except in mountainous situations ; 17 species are confined to Ireland, about 20 to the Channel Isles, and 2 are extinct, namely Carex Davalliana and Eriophorum alpinum. After making these deductions about 1,350 species are left which might occur in Northamptonshire, yet we find from the above table such is not the case. It is true that this county is by no means com- pletely investigated, and it is quite certain in respect of micro-species ' Geo. Bell & Sons, price dd., 1895. 47