Ixxxviii INTKODUCTION 



the estimated 200 clays in the field working up county-lists for use 

 in the present compilation. The conditions which governed the dis- 

 tribution of this field-work were somewhat complicated. First, an 

 estimatelin 1895 of the state of advancement of all the county- 

 lists, reckoning both all work then in existence and work likely to 

 be done by others, gave me the relative number of days that ought 

 to be devoted to exploring each division. Then the total number of 

 days which I could hope to devote to the work during the five years 

 had to be distributed among the divisions in these proportions. 

 The number of days to be spent in each division being thus deter- 

 mined, attention had again to be directed to the work already done, 

 and a note made of the portions of each division already worked, so 

 that unexplored regions should have preference. Then care had to 

 be taken in planning expeditions that every kind of ground should 

 be worked, so that mountain and stream, bog, marsh, sea-shore, 

 lake, wood, esker-ridge, should all yield their quota to the flora; 

 and the dates of visits had to be planned so that the plants neither 

 of early spring, of summer, nor of autumn, should escape notice. 

 Lastly came the dove-tailing of the various expeditions, so that the 

 above conditions should be fulfilled without any unnecessary time 

 being spent^^in travelling. Fortunately, the most remote parts of 

 the country — Cork and Kerry, Donegal, Derry and Antrim, were to 

 be reckoned among those the flora of which had previously been 

 worked out, or was already in capable hands. Still the area to be ex- 

 plored was sufficiently extensive, stretching from Wexford and Louth 

 westward to Connemara and Sligo, and from Waterford and South 

 Tipperary northward to Fermanagh. The portions of the country 

 which had been previously examined were naturally the more interes- 

 ting districts — the extreme South-west, Burren, Connemara, the 

 Ben Bulben district, Donegal, Antrim, Dublin, and Wicklow : also 

 the principal mountain-groups, lakes, and rivers — in fact, almost 

 all the places to which the botanist would naturally turn his steps. 

 Likewise, it was the rarer and more interesting species to which 

 attention had chiefly been directed. In consequence, much of my 

 work lay in the little-known Central Plain, and among plants which 

 do not possess the fascination that pertains to the Cantabrian group 

 or to the alpine flora. In some ways this restriction was beneficial, 



