A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE above table such is not the case, no fewer than 350 being unrecorded. And while it is probable that a few additional species will reward the searcher, yet there are few areas which have been more systematically worked than Berkshire ; but it must be borne in mind that however minute and assiduous the research of a botanist may be, finality can never be attained, since only a small portion comparatively of the actual surface of the ground comes within his observation, and that only for a short time. In the Compendium to the Cybele Britannica, Mr. H. C. Watson made a classification of the British plants according to their distribution. He regarded the universally distributed plants as ' British,' the southern plants as ' English,' the species having their headquarters in the western counties as ' Atlantic,' the eastern plants as ' Germanic,' while the northern species were ' Scottish ' or ' Highland.' ' Intermediate ' was applied to plants having their headquarters in the midlands and thinning out to the north and south ; ' local ' was applied in a few cases of almost isolated species. These terms were further differentiated by combining them ; thus, ' British-English ' means a plant of wide diffusion with a tendency towards the southern type, and ' English- British ' signifies a plant of a southern type widely diffused. Adopting the specific limits laid down by Mr. Watson (and omit- ing about 1 20 critical and other species, some of which have been in- cluded in the British flora since the publication of the Compendium] our Berkshire flora is constituted as follows : ENGLISH ENGLISH-BRITISH . Intermediate , Germanic Atlantic . . Local . Total BRITISH. British-English . British-Germanic Scottish . . Atlantic . Intermediate . Highland . Total . GERMANIC . . . Germanic-English British. 183 67 3 47 i 3 34 379 in i 9 i 2 3 _ 506 23 4 Myosotis sylvatica, Aquilegia, Carex elata Scutellaria minor Elatine Hydropiper, Sisymbrium Sophia, Tordylium y the latter now extinct Local Capnoides claviculata (CorydaHs) Saxifraga granu/ata, Polygonum Bistorta Vaccinium Myrtillus, Lycopodium Selago, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium Astragalus danicus, A. glycyphyllus, Con- vallaria, Hypochceris glabra Orchis militaris, O. Simia (? extinct), Muscari (? if native) Total 49
