120 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



sort of paper I wished for/' Mr. Newbould wrote to him in 

 March, and in April, " The last two numbers (of the 

 'Phytologist'), thanks to you, were what they ought to be." 



He was not forgetful meanwhile of the land where lay 

 his "second home." There were signs of increased bota- 

 nical activity in Ireland. Dr. Moore and Mr. Babington 

 had contributed two important papers to the " Proceed- 

 ings" of the " Dublin University Zoological and Botanical 

 Association/' both indicating a current of thought in the 

 direction of an Irish Cybele. 



Part of the impulse to the new movement had indeed 

 originally been given by himself; for Dr. Moore, in his 

 paper, explained that it was "an article in the 'Phyto- 

 logist' for June, 1858," which had drawn his attention to 

 the need for more systematic study of the distribution of 

 Irish plants, particularly those whose claims to rank as 

 indigenous were still unsettled. There is no difficulty in 

 identifying that "article in the ' Phytologist ' for June, 

 1858." It is Mr. More's anonymously contributed abstract 

 of De Candolle's " Naturalized Plants." In it, he had 

 raised the question, how far might the principles of De 

 Candolle's book favour the indigenousness of certain Irish 

 rarities, specially instancing the American Sisyrinchium 

 anceps, found at Woodford, and at that time nowhere else 

 in Europe. 



Dr. Moore's paper, which gave hitherto unpublished 

 localities for a number of rare species, was read on the 

 2ist of January, 1859, and was quickly followed, on the 

 1 8th of February, by Professor Babington's " Hints 

 towards a Cybele Hibernica." In this article were- laid down 

 the boundaries of the twelve "provinces," afterwards adopted 

 [under the name of " districts"] by the joint authors of 

 the " Cybele " ; and botanists were urged to form "carefully 

 prepared lists of all the indigenous plants found in each." 

 Especial pains would be necessary " to avoid the errors 

 resulting from two causes : first, the wish which many 

 collectors have to swell their lists by including in them all 

 the plants that they can find, without considering if the 

 species is likely to be indigenous in the place where they 

 have observed it ; and secondly, the mistakes often made 



