The Presidential Address. 5
tained the thought of compiling a Flora of Essex, and wrote
to several botanists on the subject, among others to Edward
Forster, from whom he "learnt that he had already collected
considerable materials for such a work, and had begun to
arrange them. Finding the task in such good hands," says
Mr. Gibson, "I gladly made over to him all the information
which had come within my reach, and during the few latter
years of his (Forster's) life we had frequent conversation and
correspondence on the subject of his intended Flora. After
his death, in 1849, no manuscript of this description was
found among his papers, and therefore I was induced to
resume the undertaking, for which materials from various
sources were gradually accumulated, till the appearance of
the Floras of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire stimulated me to
put them into shape for publication." Accordingly, in 1862,
'The Flora of Essex ; or a List of the Flowering Plants and
Ferns found in the County of Essex; with the Localities of
the less common Species ascertained by recent observation
and reference to former Authors, and Illustrated with four
coloured Plates of the Plants peculiar to the County, and a
Map'; small 8vo, pp. 1. and 470, was published by William
Pamplin, London. Issued at six shillings, which can hardly
have exceeded the bare cost of production, this work was a
considerable expense to its author; but yielded him in return
a well-merited scientific reputation as a local botanist. It
was in several respects a distinct advance on preceding county
floras. As had been done in the 'Flora Hertfordiensis' and
'Flora of Cambridgeshire,' he carefully traced the distribution
in the county of common as well as of rarer plants; but he
also searched and incorporated the work not only of Ray, but
of most of his predecessors: he gave a table of the earliest
and latest known observations of the less common species,
and one comparing the flora of Essex with those of Suffolk,
Cambridge, Hertford, and Kent; and he affixed biographies
of four of his chief predecessors in Essex botany, Ray, Dale,
Warner, and Forster, which are alike accurate and concise.
The only great improvement in county floras established since
the publication of this work has been the substitution of the
division into river-basins for that into artificial districts,