30 The Irish Naturalist. [Feb. 



natural botanical divisions, such as Kerry and South Cork, 

 Connemara and West Mayo, and Donegal. So that, although 

 the partition of Ireland by river-basins is not satisfactory, 

 nevertheless Babington's twelve provinces appear to be as 

 good as could have been selected. 



Seven years after the publication of Babington's paper, 

 Cybele Hibernica appeared, under the authorship of Dr. David 

 Moore, and Mr. A. G. More. In this work the twelve pro- 

 vinces suggested by Babington were adopted, the only 

 alteration being that they w^ere called " Districts," and 

 were numbered i to 12, instead of XIX to XXX. — of which 

 more anon. In his British Rubi, published three years later 

 (1869), Babington used the twelve provinces he proposed ; 

 indeed, it was for the purpose of showing the distribution of 

 the Rubi that he first undertook the botanical division of Ire- 

 land ; as he himself modestly says ' — " I should not have 

 intruded myself into a work which seems especially Irish, 

 had it not become necessary for me to subdivide the country 

 for the purpose of recording the distribution of the Irish Rubi, 

 as a part of my projected, and to a considerable extent com- 

 pleted, treatise upon the Rubi of the United Kingdom." So 

 much for the proposed twelve botanical divisions of Ireland ; 

 they have been adopted by the leaders of Irish botany, and 

 the large amount of botanical survey work carried out since 

 they were first suggested has not in any way shaken our faith 

 in their scientific usefulness and practical convenience. 



Next, as regards the second part of Babington's scheme — 

 the subdivision into counties and vice-counties. We have not 

 yet in Ireland got so far as a Topographical Bota7iy ; and, 

 although the publication of Cybele Hibernica marked the com- 

 mencement of a large amount of field-work, this was in most 

 cases confined to small areas, and Babington's county list lay 

 unused and apparently almost forgotten till 1884, when Prof 

 W. R. M'Nab read before the Royal Dublin Society, a '' Short 

 Note on the Botanical Topographical Divisions of Ireland " 

 which is printed in their Proceedings.'' This paper purports 

 to be a revision and extension of Babington's scheme, but 

 the suggCvStions put forward — the Roman numerals for 



» Hints towards a Cybele Hibernica, /. c. 

 ', Set. Fro^^ Ji:.D.S., U.S., iv. i^T {iSSs). 



