278 The Irish Naturalist. [December, 



rubbisli-heap of Irish botany, casuals, mistakes, plants not 

 fuU}^ naturalized, introductions, and suspicious records, find a 

 common grave. We much prefer the arrangement in the old 

 edition, where all such plants appear in their proper places, 

 branded with a different type and a square bracket. The line 

 which separates fully naturalized plants from ones which are 

 still on their trial is such a devious and arbitrary one, that the 

 effect of this separation is that we have often to try in two places 

 before we find the plant of which we are in search. A single 

 list must ever be the most convenient way of displaying a 

 flora. 



The other point which at once strikes one on contrasting 

 the old edition with the new is the vast advance which the 

 latterdisplaysin our knowledge of plant-distribution in Ireland. 

 The extensive botanical survey work which has been carried 

 out during the last tw^ent}^ 3^ears has resultedin a great deal more 

 than a mere piling up of records ; it has defined the distribution 

 in Ireland of a large number of species, the range of which 

 previously appeared discontinuous and indefinite. Compare, 

 for instance, Lcontodon hirttts and Z. hispidiis in the old and 

 new editions, or Juncus obticsiflortis. Note, likewise, the 

 extensive distribution now given for Potaviogdoii Zizii and 

 Carex aquatilis, two plants which do not appear at all in the first 

 edition. The number of plants recorded from all twelve Dis- 

 tricts is in the new edition very largel}^ increased, and includes 

 many that are by no means common, and are certainl}^ not 

 universally distributed in Ireland. This fact suggests, as 

 remarked by the editors in the introduction, that the time has 

 arrived for a further step in the working out of the distribution 

 of the Irish flora by means of a more detailed botanical sub- 

 division of the country. 



Another proof of the advance of our knowledge is shown in 

 the fact that the Characece, which did not appear in the first 

 edition, are now published with a goodly show of localities 

 from the length and breadth of our island. 



lyCt us now turn over rapidly the pages of the book. The 

 preface t(dls how the work of bringing out the new edition was 

 bequeathed to the present editors by A. G. More— a labour of 



