58 ' The Irish Naturalist. [Marcb, 



attributed to the Florida Current or true Gulf Stream."^ Dr. 

 Carpenter (p. 20 of this article) considers the Gulf Stream *' to 

 be no longer recognizable to the east of the meridian of 30*^ 

 W. longitude," and attributes the transport of West Indian 

 tree-trunks, fruits, &c., to the shores of western Europe to a 

 surface drift sustained b}^ the prevalence of S.W. winds. Our 

 second authoritj^ Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., thus delivers him^ 

 self in Notes on Rockall {R.I.A. Tra7is., 1897, p. 63) : " In reply 

 to the question about the Gulf Stream, it is perfectly well 

 defined up to say 50° W. longitude, but I contend no further." 

 We are quite content to differ from Mr. Hart, Dr. Murray, and 

 the Prince of Monaco in such good company as that of Dr. 

 Carpenter and Mr. Scott, and leave it to the reader to decide 

 for himself under which banner he will enlist. We have no 

 strong tendencies to iconoclasm, but since the Gulf Stream 

 threatens to pla}' as thaumaturgical a part in Irish meteorology 

 as Finn and Cuchulainn play in Irish legend, it seems high 

 time to submit its credentials to scientific scrutiny. 



Irish Pi,ant-Namks. 

 This new feature in the Cybele is founded on inquiries begun 

 by one of us many years before the preparation of the second 

 edition was entered upon. It was with a full knowledge of 

 the work alread}^ done in the same field b}^ Threlkeld, Light- 

 foot, Wade, G'Reill}^ and Cameron that the inquiries were 

 instituted ; but as the investigator aimed merely at the fixing 

 of the more prominent native plant-names actually currejit i?i 

 Ireland it was impossible to make any use of these authorities. 

 Even the latest of them, Cameron, in his Gaelic Names of 

 Plafits, 1883, though he gives in addition to the Scotch Gaelic 

 names a large collection of Irish Gaelic names, does not 

 indicate whether any one of them was taken from other than 

 literary sources. Only one who has himself carried on such 

 inquiries in the field can appreciate their difficulty, and how 



• A more recent authority, Mr. Dickeson, in the Quarterly Joiirn. Roy. 

 Meteorol. Socy. for October, 1899, contends that " the mild winters of our 

 western coasts are not due to the heating of the air by contact with a 

 surface of warm water, brought by a current from warmer regions . . . 

 but to the fact that the air has itself come from these warmer regions, 

 and is charged with abundant moisture, which sets free vast quantities of 

 heat through condensation." 



