Ixxxiv INTEODUCTION 



It may be remarked here that the field-Tvork necessarily included 

 the re-survey of certain areas, the flora of which had been already 

 examined and published. In some botanical reports the question 

 of county-distribution had not entered into the author's considera- 

 tion, and the information given did not definitely state in which of 

 two or more counties many plants were found. In other cases, the 

 rarer plants only were published ; and as the occurrence of commoner 

 ones could not be assumed, the ground had to be gone over again 

 for the completion of the lists of species. Every effort was made to 

 utilize published material to the full, and Mr. Stewart and Mr. Hart 

 were particularly helpful in annotating their various papers to allow 

 of each record being allocated to its proper topographical division ; 

 but in other cases such information was not now obtainable, and 

 certain records had, for the present, to be laid aside as indefinite. 



It has been particularly gratifying to me that the one doubt- 

 ful item in the calculations — viz. the amount of assistance that I 

 might receive from botanists not at that time working at the 

 flora of any portion in Ireland — has proved to be under-estimated ; 

 the generous aid that I received, sometimes from quite unex- 

 pected quarters, was the pleasautest feature of the five years 

 harvesting, and much lightened my own labours in the field. The 

 accompanying maps will convey a good idea of the progress of 

 the field-work. The same facts, with the area of each observer's 

 operations, are shown in detail in the following table, in which the 

 relative extent of the lists compiled by the explorers referred to is 

 shown roughly by the letters appended to their names. C signifies 

 incomplete lists of the rarer plants, or general lists of not over, say, 

 100 species. The letter B is used for more complete lists of rarer 

 plants, or for general lists of not over, say, 300 plants. A signifies 

 good county Hsts — say from 400 to 700 species. 



