62 The Irish Nahiralist, [March, 



the most delicate and the hardiest members of our flora. 

 Judged b}^ the vertical range of its members in Ireland, the 

 Cantabrian group is hy no means so sharply distinguished 

 from the Alpine in power of endurance, as Mr. Hart maintains. 

 For instance, Saxifraga umbrosa ranges to 3,370 feet, S. Geuni 

 to 2,650 /eet, Pinguiaila grandiflora to 2,250 feet, Dabcocia 

 polifolia to 1,900 feet. Erica rneditcrranea probabl)' to 1,000 feet ; 

 while on the other hand man}' of our alpines, accustomed in 

 more thoroughl}^ congenial climates to the protection of 

 regularly recurring and persistent winter snow^s, show them- 

 selves impatient of exposure to frost in more temperate climates 

 where this protection is often withheld. It is needless to say 

 that the alternative hypothesis favoured by Mr. Hart is beset 

 by peculiar difficulties of its own. No one who wishes to 

 apprehend the great complexity of such questions should 

 neglect to study Dr. Scharff's erudite paper O71 the Origi^i of 

 the Etiropean Fauiia,^ a perfect treasure-house of the polyglot 

 literature of distributional problems. 



With a passing reference to one or two expressions in Mr. 

 Hart's very interesting discussion of this question, we must 

 hasten on to our next section. On page 30 he states that the 

 chief peculiarity of the Cantabrian group of plants " is the 

 accidental one that they do not now exist in the neighbouring 

 island." The group being a distributional one it is quite 

 inadmissible to speak of its essential characteristic — locality — 

 as accidental. Again, on p. 33, after touching on the wisdom 

 and veracity of plants which, we are admonished, should be let 

 " speak for themselves" since " they know and they will tell no 

 lies," Mr. Hart insists that hypothetical formula should give 

 way to the ''incontrovertible laws of nature." By all means, 

 but the question is — what are the incontrovertible laws of 

 nature in this complex and largely mysterious domain of 

 plant distribution ? And wdien we have got our wise and 

 veracious plants into the witness-box, who is to interpret for 

 us their inarticulate deliverances? Finally, on p. 31, Mr. 

 Hart says that it was almost a pity to raise this debatable 

 question at all in Cybele. If debatable questions had been 

 rigorously eschewed the book could never have been written. 

 Hardly a page of it is free from debatable matter : a whole 



^ Proc. K.I. A., 3rd series, vol. iv., no. 3. 



