i860] " Cybele Hibernica " foreshadowed. 1 2 1 



in the nomenclature of little known or what are called 

 critical plants." 



Professor Babington added a striking illustration of 

 one of the difficulties with which the investigation of Irish 

 botany was still hampered : 



I may remark that there are in my herbarium specimens of three 

 heaths, given to me by a person who marked with his own hand upon 

 the labels the exact spots where he said he had gathered them, but 

 which, after having myself carefully examined the places (situated in 

 the south of Ireland), I came to the conclusion never grew there ; 

 and I am informed that, although many years have passed since the 

 event occurred, no one else has succeeded in discovering them in that 

 part of the kingdom. 



The nearly coincident appearance of these two articles 

 seemed of good augury for the wishes of Cybelizers ; and 

 Mr. More now put together what unpublished notes he 

 still had on Irish botany, comprising the results of his 

 stay at Loughall in the spring of 1854, his visit to Holly- 

 mount, and tour in Clare in the summer of the same year, 

 and some additional particulars and corrections as to the 

 Flora of Castle Taylor. " May the accomplishment of a 

 * Cybele Hibernica' be the hope and the effort of every 

 Irish botanist/' were the words with which he concluded 

 his summary. He took even more than his usual pains in 

 the preparation of this paper,* and in sending it in MS. to 

 Mr. Newbould, begged him to criticise it " as severely as pos- 

 sible," after which it was also subjected to Mr. Babington's 

 censorship before being forwarded to Dublin, to be read 

 at the Zoological and Botanical Association meeting on the 

 i8th of May. 



One passage in the paper always remained a matter 

 of standing controversy between Mr. Babington and him- 

 self, the Professor stoutly repudiating the notion of "my 

 leek " being other than an indigenous species. The 

 opinion broached in the following paragraph was, how- 

 ever, always maintained by Mr. More : 



May not even Allium babingtonii, spite of its high flavour, have 

 been cultivated by the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Aran 



* "Localities for some Rare Plants observed in Ireland, with Remarks on the 

 Distribution of others." Nat. Hist. Review. 



