I900.] ScHARFF. — The Itish Flora and the Glacial Period. 69 



procedure, and crush all independent thought. Moreover, 

 the subject is so vast and intricate that we are not able to 

 decide the question at present with any degree of certainty. 

 Most geologists, judging from purely geological reasoning^ 

 hold that the climate of Ireland was very cold during the 

 Glacial Period, and that both plants and animals were exter- 

 minated, and could, therefore, only have migrated to Ireland 

 since that period. Thej^ tell us that we must fit in our theories 

 according to their views. This seems to be the kind of 

 coercion of our reasoning powers favoured by Mr. Hart ! 

 Why should not we botanists and zoologists bring together 

 all the possible facts and data at our command in order to 

 attack the problem from another stand-point ? I have 

 attempted to rouse an interest among zoologists and botanists 

 on the subject, in order to induce them to investigate it from 

 their own stand-point, and have published my views in the 

 paper referred to by Mr. Hart, and more recently in 

 book form. Both of these have been ably reviewed and 

 criticised in the Irish Naturalist. As I have stated in my 

 book, the eminent Swedish botanist. Prof Nathorst, and also 

 the well-known Arctic traveller. Colonel Feilden, are of 

 opinion that part of the Greenland flora survived the Glacial 

 Period in that country. If any flowering plants survived 

 there, why not in Ireland ? Mr. Hart looks upon the 

 Killarney Fern as the chief stumbling block to the survival 

 theory. But not long ago, Mr. Moore, the able Curator of the 

 Dublin Botanic Gardens, told me that the roof of the fern- 

 house in which he stored these ferns had been once smashed 

 during very severe weather in winter, so that the tender 

 plants were exposed to great and sudden cold, without their 

 being injured thereby. My statement as to the County 

 Londonderry containing most of the Northern animals and 

 plants will probably have to be modified to "" North-western 

 Ireland " instead of " Londonderry." This, however, was not 

 a serious mistake, and cannot affect the general drift of my 

 views. 



Science and Art Museum, Dublin. 



