282 The Irisli Naturalist. [December, 



a large district, hcvvever, the chronological arrangement of 

 records is not without its disadvantages. Under District V., 

 for instance, we sometimes find notes from the counties of 

 Kildare, Dublin, Meath, and I^outh all jumbled up together. 

 We should have preferred a more geographical arrangement, 

 stations in one county being at least kept together. There 

 is a slight and not unnatural tendency to expand dispropor- 

 tionately Co. Dublin records, though the metropolitan county is 

 one of the smallest, and not exceptionally interesting. Under 

 Galcopsis angiistifolia, for instance, 12 lines out of 20 are 

 devoted to Dublin. The final remark " not unfrequent in 

 Co. Dublin " might have sufiiced. Lamimn albicm is " fre- 

 quent in Co. Dublin," and "frequent in North-east Ireland" ; 

 a number of Dublin localities are quoted, but none for Down, 

 Antrim, or Derr}^ in which, as a matter of fact, the plant is 

 quite irregularly distributed. 



The interest of the records quoted is frequently greatly 

 enhanced by valuable generalizations and critical notes — see, 

 for instance, under Saxifraga Gcum and 6*. 2unbrosa. In some 

 instances a vast amount of confusion is now cleared away — 

 note, as an example, the orderly arrangement which Eqicisetum 

 variegatum and its forms now assumes. In the case of many 

 of the interesting *' Hibernian" plants, a suggestive note on 

 the foreign distribution is appended ; the un-Mediterranean 

 Mediterranean Heath is a good example, like\Yise /2c?icus teniits. 

 A similar note might have been added to the notice of 

 Eupliorbia hibcriia. Under Pijig^dcula graiidiflora we find a 

 timely protest against the introduction of native plants into 

 districts where they are not indigenous. Surely the perturbing 

 influences of present-day commerce and agriculture on the 

 flora render the work of the topographical botanist sufficiently 

 difficult, without his having dust deliberately thrown in his 

 eyes by the officious ministrations of ignorant meddlers. 



Another of the vexed questions which the editors had to 

 face was the treatment of critical plants. As in the question 

 of nomenclature, a middle course has been steered. Most of 

 the Plawkweeds are treated as good species ; most of the 

 Brambles as sub-species. Euphrasia and Alchcmilla segregates 

 .are passed over with a general observation on the forms 



