vi PREFACE. 



well as good swimmers, and made light of the idea of incurring danger. 

 It is said that they were advised to take a heavier boat than the one they 

 had arranged for, and also to engage the services of a local boatman, but 

 these precautions, it would appear, they deemed unnecessary. Accord- 

 ingly they put off in a light skiff, no doubt rejoicing in the thought that 

 they could penetrate wherever it seemed desirable, and return at the 

 close of a long day without having to consider the suggestions, or con- 

 venience of any but themselves. But they did not return, and the 

 search, that night instituted, discovered the empty boat, and subse- 

 quently the bodies of the two unfortunate botanists. No eye saw the 

 occurrence, and the exact details of the calamity will never be known, 

 but from the few memoranda made, and the few plants collected, it 

 would seem to have been in the early part of the day. The present 

 writer was at that time exploring the shores of Lough Allen in the ad- 

 joining county of Leitrim. The wild gusts of wind which broke the 

 stems of the water plants, and drove their fragments ashore were of ser- 

 vice to him, but he little imagined their fatal significance to two fellow 

 botanists. 



Mr. Corry had not reached his twenty -fourth year, but, a diligent 

 worker, he had already attained a position amongst rising botanists 

 much beyond what his years seem to warrant. Had his life been pro- 

 longed there is no doubt that British Botany would have felt his influ- 

 ence. As regards the present work, while claiming that no pains have 

 been spared in its compilation, the surviving Editor is not unaware that 

 less faults would have appeared, and higher merit been attained had the 

 co-operation of his colleague not terminated so abruptly. 



In preparing the present Flora it has never been forgotten that accu- 

 racy is of immensely more value than copiousness. Nothing that is 

 capable of being tested has been taken for granted, and the very large 

 lists of " Excluded Plants " given at the end testify to the necessity of 

 this method. Possibly a few still remain which should have been rele- 

 gated to the Excluded lists, but where a first rate botanist has noted a 

 plant, and its occurrence is not improbable, it must be admitted although 

 unconfirmed. Notes by parties who, either through carelessness or in- 

 competence, have made many mistakes are not accepted without some 

 cODfirmation. "With regard to localities furnished to this Flora by 

 contemporaries the Editors hold themselves to a great extent responsible 

 for their correctness, but the records of the older botanists, and of the 

 published Floras have been received subject to the limitations stated 

 above. 



The statements of the altitudinal range, and of the times of flowering 

 of plants are original, being based on notes made by ourselves within the 

 district, and continued for many years. "Where, owing to insufficient 

 information, it became necessary to quote some outside standard the 

 authority has been stated. The vertical range of many of our plants is 

 imperfectly known : under this head careful observations in the future are 

 desirable. 



A local Flora has its historical aspects, and in the present case these 



