I897-] Notes, 115 



certain localities. Geographical and geological problems of the greatest 

 interest lie behind work on the distribution of plants and animals, and 

 every student of the subject knows that the Irish flora and fauna furnish 

 specially suggestive facts for the solution of these problems. We hold, 

 therefore, that deliberate falsification of the geographical record is a grave 

 scientific offence, since it tends to make the facts on which we have to 

 build insecure. 



There are, of course, some introductions which cannot mislead any- 

 one; we have nothing to say against these. No one would suppose that 

 Lord Powerscourt's Japanese Deer are indigenous Irish mammals ; while 

 in many cases botanists can determine with certainty that a tree or shrub 

 has been planted. But so many species, unknown in Great Britain, 

 have been and are being found in Ireland, that the greatest possible care 

 should be taken not to introduce anything at all likely to deceive 

 naturalists. Dr. Hart mentions foreign heaths. When we consider the 

 intense interest of the Mediterranean heaths which are so striking a 

 feature in the flora of western Ireland, we would specially beg that our 

 plants of this family may not be tampered with for the sake of " beauty 

 and utility." Let foreign heaths be grown in greenhouses and gardens, 

 and our moors and marshes left to the undisturbed possession of the 

 native plants. A few months ago we recorded the occurrence of a North 

 American plant, Sisyrinchium californictim, in Co. Wexford. Though it 

 grows over several acres, botanists cannot be certain that we should be 

 justified in adding it to our list of four or five undoubtedly indigenous 

 North American plants. In view _of the special affinities of a section 

 of the Irish flora and fauna, the introduction of North American or 

 Mediterranean species is particularly reprehensible. 



The discussion about the Frog in Ireland which is still going on in our 

 pages, illustrates the difficulties raised for the student of distribution by 

 the introduction of a species. The paucity of Irish reptiles and 

 amphibians has been noted from time immemorial, and is a striking 

 evidence that Ireland is an older island than Great Britain. Yet, because 

 of the recorded introduction of the Frog two centuries ago, we shall 

 always be in some doubt whether our most abundant representative of 

 these two classes is native or not. And when the details of the subject 

 come to be worked out, doubt on such a point vastly increases the 

 difficulty — already great enough — in coming to right conclusions. 



Dr. Hart hopes " that the love of beauty and utility will prevail over 

 the making of catalogues." The making of catalogues is necessary, but 

 it is not the end of the study of distribution. The catalogue is required 

 as a starting point — a record of facts from which further studies can be 

 undertaken : studies into the 'past history of the living creation 

 around us and of the land which it adorns. The artificial pursuit of 

 "beauty and utility" by the landscape-gardener and the breeder is, we 

 believe, possible without hindrance to the pursuit of truth by the 

 naturalist 



The Editors. 



