58 ON THE BOTANICAL SUBDIVISION OF IRELAND. 



XXm. LiFFEY AND BoYNE.— 124. Kilclare ; 125. Dublin; 126. 

 Meath; 127. Louth. 



XXIV. Lower Shannon. — 128. Limerick; 129. Clare; 130. 

 East Galway. 



XXV. Upper Shannon. — 131. North Tipperary ; 132. King's 

 Co. ; 133. Westmeath ; 134. Longford. 



XXVL North Atlantic. — 135. West Galway; 13G. West Mayo. 



XXVII. North Connaught. — 137. East Mayo; 138. Sligo ; 

 139. Leitrim ; 140. Eoscommon. 



XXVIII. Erne.— 141. Fermanagh; 142. Cavan ; 143; Mona- 

 ghan ; 144. Tyrone; 145. Armagh, 



XXIX. Donegal.— 146. Donegal. 



XXX. Ulster Coast.— 147. Down; 148. Antrim; 149. Deny. 



Following Watson, Babington founded his twelve provinces as 

 far as possible on the principal river-basins of the country. Ireland 

 does not readily lend itself to such a plan of division. Tlie Shannon 

 valley occupies about one-sixth of the entire island, and other river- 

 basins are small in comparison. Also, the mountain-chains being 

 mostly near the coast, considerable areas are drained by small 

 rivers only. The consequence was that in many cases river-basin 

 provinces were not practicable, and this gave an opportunity for 

 the using of natural botanical divisions, sucli as Kerry and South 

 Cork, Connemara and West Alayo, and Donegal. So that, although 

 the partition of Ireland by river-basins is not satisfactory, never- 

 theless 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 provinces suggested by 

 Babington were adopted, the only alteration being that they were 

 called "Districts," and were numbered 1 to 12, instead of XIX. to 

 XXX. — of which more anon. In his British Eubi, published three 

 years later (1869), Babington used the twelve provinces he pro- 

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

 the Rnbi that he first undertook the botanical division of Ireland; 

 as he himself modestly says,''' " I should not have intruded myself 

 into a work which seems especially Irish, had it not become neces- 

 sary for me to subdivide the country for the purpose of recording 

 the distribution of the Irish Eubi, as a part of my projected, and to 

 a considerable extent completed, treatise upon the Rnbi of the 

 United Kingdom." So much for the proposed twelve botanical 

 divisions of Ireland: they have been adopted by the leidtrs 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 Tojiographical Botany ; and, although the 



* " Hints towards a Cybele Hibernica," L c. 



