1896.] Prakger. — Botanical Subdivision of Irelajid. 31^^, 



the provinces, the use of the word "province" instead of 

 " district " (which was used in Cybcle Hibernica), the giving 

 of names to the provinces, and the numbering of the vice- 

 counties— all these had been already published in Babington's 

 paper; and M'Nab's table of provinces and counties is iden- 

 tical with that of Babington, except that he commences the 

 numbering of provinces and of counties with I., and that he 

 does not subdivide the county of Kerry. 



No further reference to or use of Babington's county- 

 division scheme appears until the j^ear 1895, when Messrs. 

 Groves employed it in their valuable paper on *' The Dis- 

 tribution of the CharacecB in Ireland,'" in which the distribution 

 of the species and varieties is shown in list form, on the plan 

 of Watson's Topographical Botany. 



For some time past, a sense of the importance of com- 

 mencing the large amount of field-w^ork that must be carried 

 out before an Irish Topographical Botany become a possibility, 

 has been steadily growing in my mind ; and this led me 

 some months ago to go carefully into the question of the most 

 advantageous subdivision of the country into counties and 

 vice-counties. As regards about twenty-four out of the thirty- 

 two Irish counties, I had the benefit of at least some personal 

 knowledge, topographical and botanical ; and regarding others, 

 I have had the great advantage of the opinions of botanists 

 whose special acquaintance with the flora of these counties 

 is well known. The first result of my enquiry has been the 

 conviction that the subdivision of the larger counties as 

 proposed by Babington can be now improved upon ; and 

 indeed this is not a matter for surprise, when we consider the 

 enormous advance made during the intervening period of 

 thirty-seven years in our knowledge of Irish botanical topo- 

 graphy (though that knowledge is yet very far from complete). 

 I am also convinced that the order in which the counties and 

 vice-counties are numbered in Babington's scheme is not the 

 most convenient or useful one that can be devised : and in 

 this view I am glad to have the support of several of the most 

 practical Irish botanists. It is manifestly important that some 

 scheme of county division and county-numbering should 

 be fixed once for all, according to which future records may 



* Irish Naturalist-^ Jan. and Feb., 1895. 



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