56 The Irish Naturalist, [March, 



REMARKS ON THE SECOND EDITION OF CYBELE 

 HIBERNICA : A REJOINDER. 



BY NATHANIEL COLGAN, M.R.I.A., AND REGINAI^D W. 



SCUI.I.Y, F.Iv.S. 



There can be no more wholesome discipline for a writer than 

 to have his work submitted to a searching and outspoken 

 criticism, such as Mr. Hart has pronounced on the new Cybcle 

 Hibe'niica in last month's issue of this Journal, When w^e first 

 glanced over his Remarks^ and saw our editorial sins and 

 peccadillos registered with all that conscientious minuteness 

 which usually characterizes one's inventories of his neigh- 

 bour's shortcomings, we began to fear that the case against 

 us might prove a rather damaging one. But to a closer 

 scrutiny it revealed many weak points. We found in not a 

 few instances that our critic had charged us with doing what 

 we had left undone, and with leaving undone what we had 

 done ; in short, that the negligence imputed to us was often 

 more fitly attributable to himself. 



Mr. Hart's examination of the Cybcle has been so searching 

 and the objections taken to it so numerous that our defence 

 must necCvSsaril}' be a rather lengthy one. For the sake of 

 lucidity let us deal with his animadversions in sections. The 

 chief counts in his indictment may be headed thus : Climate ; 

 Irish Plant-names ; Ori^n of the Caiitabiian Group ; Omissions ; 

 Miscellaneous Objections ; and our apologia maj^ be conveniently 

 arranged under corresponding heads. 



C1.IMATE. 



Rainfall. — When preparing our section on climate for the 

 second edition of Cybcle we at first endeavoured to arrive at a 

 trustworthy average annual rainfall for East and West Ireland, 

 founded on data drawn from a numerous series of properly dis- 

 tributed stations and spreading over the same series of years. 

 Failing to find sufficient data, we abandoned the attempt to 

 arrive at averages and satisfied ourselves watli the two generalisa- 

 tions, that the east is drier than the west, and that the Irish rain- 

 fall reaches a maximum in the south- west. The accuracy of our 

 ^^cond generalisation is thus c^uestioned by Mr. Hart on p. 28 of 



