130 IV. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



utterly disregarding the old comital divisions, and tracing 

 out an entirelj^ independent series of districts, the re- 

 quired objects might have been met very completely. 

 But the advantages thereby gamed would have been 

 attended with disadvantages so great as to become prac- 

 tically insuperable. An entirely new set of boundary 

 lines would have been necessary, not in accordance with 

 those laid down in existing maps ; and which would thus 

 have necessitated new maps, on a large scale, for tracing 

 them out satisfactoi'ily. Most of the local Floras and 

 other lists of species, with arrangements and specifica- 

 tions of localities, have been made in reference to county 

 limits ; so that a large portion of our printed records 

 would have been rendered much less available, by the 

 adoption of other divisions which disregarded the old 

 comital boundaries. 



These and other considerations made a general ad- 

 herence to the long- established county limits practically 

 unavoidable, when fixing upon other sections to be used 

 instead of the counties themselves, or jointly with them. 

 Larger and fewer districts could be formed by uniting 

 counties into provinces. Smaller and more numerous 

 sections could be formed by dividing the great counties 

 into vice-counties. To explain the former, it usually 

 sufficed to name the counties which were united to form 

 them, as was done in volume first, pages 16 and 17. 



The vice-counties were traced on the lithograj)hic map 

 prefixed to volume third, and will shortly be further 

 explained in the present volume. In this manner, 

 phyto- geographers acquire other and more serviceable 

 divisions of the surface, without losing the advantages of 

 familiar names and fixed boundaries, traceable upon any 

 ordinary map of Britain. At the same time the irregu- 

 larit}', inequality, and arbitrary character of the old 



