Читать книгу Flowers of the Coast - Ian Hepburn - Страница 7

IT WAS with considerable diffidence that I, a mere amateur, accepted the invitation of the Editors to write this book. Nor has the subsequent appearance of other books in this series, all written by experts, done anything to dispel this feeling. Nevertheless, I am grateful to them for being so insistent that I should try my hand, for I have greatly enjoyed doing it, and certainly know rather more about the subject than I did when I started!

Ever since I began to take an interest in wild flowers I have always found maritime plants especially attractive. I was lucky enough to go to school within five miles of Blakeney, and first learnt the common seaside plants on the Cley marshes, the Weybourne shingle bank, and sometimes on the historic Blakeney Point itself. Later, I had the good fortune to live for a number of years in north Cornwall, where, in addition to fine stretches of cliffs, excellent sand-dunes and small areas of salt-marsh were within easy reach. Coastal vegetation, therefore, is very much in my blood, and if I have been able, in this book, to convey something of the pleasure I have had in botanising along the coast, I shall be very well satisfied. Now that it is written, my first wish is to get out to the coast once more to start some field-work. Perhaps I may express the hope that others may be similarly stimulated.

I am deeply indebted to many authors, whose books and original papers I have freely consulted. A full list of these, with acknowledgments, appears in the Bibliography. I count myself very fortunate in having persuaded Professor Steers to write the chapter on the physiography of the coast. No one else possesses his detailed knowledge of the whole coastline of Britain, and he should really have written the whole book himself, for he is no mean botanist. I am specially grateful to John Markham for taking so much trouble in obtaining many of the photographs I required—whatever may be said about the text, it will be generally admitted that his pictures are first-class. Finally my grateful thanks are due to John Gilmour for his continual encouragement and advice at all stages.

For permission to reproduce figures appearing in the text acknowledgment is made to the following sources:

Cambridge University Press: Fig. 6, Fig. 9c, and Fig. 11, from The British Islands and their Vegetation (1939) by A. G. Tansley.

G. Bell and Sons, Limited: Fig. 4, Fig. 10, and Fig. 12 from Plant Form and Function (1946) by F. E. Fritsch and E. J. Salisbury.

Royal Geographical Society: Fig. 1 from The Geographical Journal (1937).