5? The Irish NaUualisi* Februan-, 



NOTES. 



The Biological Subdivisions of Ireland. 



I have only now found an opportunity of critically examining the last 

 few numbers of the IrisJi NatiiniUsi. Mr. Adams's scheme of the division 

 of Ireland into biological sub-provinces in last August's number aroused 

 my particular interest, and I wish to associate myself with Mr. Praeger 

 in its praise. I often felt the want of something of the kind. There 

 are many groups of invertebrates whose distribution is so little known 

 that the four provinces are just sufficient to enable us to indicate roughly 

 where these animals are found. Of others we have acquired a little 

 more knowledge. We may thus possibly be able to publish a list giving 

 their range in the more detailed manner suggested by Mr. Adams. There 

 are certain groups, such as the Rotifers, which are so difficult to deter- 

 mine and collect that, unless a specialist visits Ireland, not a single 

 species may be recorded for a long series of years. Yet it is important 

 that we should have some general idea of the existing knowledge of the 

 distribution of these groups, at least as far as the four provinces are 

 concerned. 



The subdivisions of the provinces proposed by Mr. Adams, however, 

 do not appear to me all so useful as Mr, Babington's from a zoological 

 point of view. For instance, the fauna of Wexford more nearly ap- 

 proaches that of Wicklow than that of Kilkenny. In the old scheme 

 the first two are linked together. Mr. Adams now proposes to unite 

 Wexford with Kilkenny, and Wicklow with Dublin, Kildare, and other 

 counties. 



Nevertheless, the only serious flaw in Mr. Adams's original scheme was 

 that already noticed by him and corrected in a supplementary note in 

 the Irish NatutaUst (pi, supra). The marine districts, as first proposed, 

 could not stand. The new ones are far better. I think it would be 

 desirable now to refer the whole scheme to some such body as the Royal 

 Irish Academy Fauna and Flora Committee. Once the active biologists 

 of Ireland have adopted a good scheme, future lists of species should be 

 issued in accordance with it as far as possible. 



R. F. SCHARFF. 



National Museum, Dublin. 



BOTANY. 



Allium oleraceum in Ireland. 



In the Journal of Botany for January, Mr. J. Adams states that the 

 Antrim records of Allium vincalc are referable to A» okraceiim, and that 

 he proposes to discuss the matter shortly in these pages. 



