64 



ON THE BOTANICAL SUBDIVISION OF IRELAND. 



5. LiFFEY AND BoYNE 



6. Lower Shannon 



7. Upper Shannon 



8. North Atlantic 



9. North Connaught 



10. Erne 



11. Donegal 



'Id. Kildare. 



121. Dublin. 



22. Meath. 

 i31. Loutb. 



8. Limerick. 



9. Clare. 



15. Soutb-east Galway. 



17. Nortb-east Galway. 

 10. Nortb Tipperary. 



18. King's County. 



23. Westmeatb. 



24. Longford. 



1 16. West Galway. 



(27. West Mayo. 



26. East Mayo. 



28. Sligo. 



29. Leitrim. 



25. Eoscommon. 

 33. Fermanagb. 



30. Cavan. 



32. Monagban. 



36. Tyrone. 



,37. Armagb. 



[34. Soutb Donegal. 



[35. Nortb Donegal. 



Down. 



Antrim. 



Derry. 



(88. 

 12. Ulster Coast J39. 



(40. 



Lastly, a word as to the numerals used to denote the districts 

 and county-divisions. Babington numbered bis first Irish province 

 (Soutb Atlantic) XIX., being the number following that of the last 

 province of Great Britain (Nortb Isles), and similarly numbered the 

 first vice-county (Soutb Kerry) 113 ; and the sequence involved in 

 the latter has been used by Messrs. Groves in their recent paper on 

 Irish Characece, 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 Britannica, and now universally adopted, the 

 vice-county numbering in Great Britain commences in the Atlantic 

 counties of Cornwall and Devon, which in all Britain have botani- 

 cally the nearest affinity 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 



