1896.] Prae:ger. — Botanical Subdivisio7i of Ireland. 37 



Vril. North Atlantic, . . -16. West Gal way. 



27. West Mayo. 

 IX. North Connaiight, . • .26. East Mayo. 



28. Sligo. 



29. Leitrim. 



25. Roscommon. 

 X. Erne, . • • 33- Fermanagh. 



30. Cavan. 



32. Monaghan. 



36. Tyrone. 



37. Armagh. 



XL Donegal, . . . •34- South DonegaL 



35. North Donegal. 



XII. Ulster Coast, . . . -38. Down 



39. Antrim. 



40. Derry. 



Lastlj^ a word as to the numerals used to denote the dis- 

 tricts and county-divisions. Babington numbered his first 

 Irish province (South Atlantic) XIX, being the number 

 following that of the last province of Great Britain (North 

 Isles), and similarly numbered the first vice-county (South 

 Kerry) 113 ; and the sequence involved in the latter has been 

 used by Messrs. Groves in their recent paper on Irish Characecs, 

 their reason, as given in a friendly note to the writer, being 

 that the British Isles form a natural botanical district, of 

 which Ireland is a part. Quite so ; but let us look more 

 closely into this matter. According to Watson's arrangement, 

 as first put forward in Cybele Britan?iica, and now universally 

 adopted, the vice- county numbering in Great Britain com- 

 mences in the Atlantic counties of Cornwall and Devon, which 

 in all Britain have botanically the nearest affinit}^ to the 

 characteristic flora of Ireland ; yet in the county list they are 

 removed from the allied districts of Ireland by the whole 

 length and breadth of England, Wales, and Scotland. The 

 county-numbers in Great Britain led us gradually northward, 

 from Cornwall right up to the Shetlands, and the largeness or 

 smallness of the figures themselves thus afford a useful clue to 

 the northern or southern range of a .species ; but, according 

 to this scheme of continuous numbering, the moment we pass 

 112 we plunge from the almost Scandinavian flora of Shetland 

 into the luxuriant southern flora of Killarney, thence to 

 proceed by degrees to the more northern flora of Derry. A 



A 3 



