August, 1908 The Irish Naturalist. 145 



ON THE DIVISION OF IRELAND 

 INTO BIOLOGICAL SUB-PROVINCES. 



BY J. ADAMS, M.A. 

 (Pl,ATE 70 



The first attempt to divide Ireland into botanical districts was 

 made by Babington (i)Mn 1859. He divided the whole countrj^ 

 into twelve districts, which were still further subdivided into 

 thirty-seven counties and vice-counties. The larger counties, 

 Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Galwa}', and MayO; were each divided 

 into two, the remaining counties constituting the other twenty- 

 seven subdivisions. His divisions of Counties Cork and 

 Kerr}'' are quite different from those subsequently adopted by 

 Praeger (iS). The twelve districts, moreover, are such that 

 they cannot be grouped into the four provinces of Ireland. 



Babington's twelve subdivisions were adopted later b}^ the 

 authors of Cybele Hibernica (4), both in the first and second 

 editions. The Aran Isles are considered as belonging to Co. 

 Clare, and that part of Co. Derr}^ west of the Fo3dej is grouped 

 along with Co. Donegal. In the second edition the boundary 

 line separating North and South Cork is not quite the same 

 as in the first edition. 



In 1873 Moore, in his " Sjmopsis of the Mosses of Ireland" 

 (13), indicated the distribution in the different counties. He 

 also employed the count}' divisions in his '* Report on Irish 

 Hepaticae " (14) in 1877. 



In 1884 M'Nab (12) divided the country into twelve 

 ''provinces/' which were the same in extent and boundaries 

 as those of Babington, but w^ere called by different names. 

 Babington's term "district" is undoubtedly preferable to that 

 of M'Nab^ as " province," to most people's minds, carries the 

 idea of one of the four political divisions of Ireland. M'Nab's 

 system, however, recognised only thirty-six counties and vice- 

 counties, as he did not divide Kerry into two sections. 



Groves (5) in 1895 adopted the twelve divisions of Babing- 

 ton in dealing with the distribution of Irish Characese. ' 



1 The numbers refer to the BibUography at the end. 



