X PEEFACE. 



botany -wHcli is marted by tbe publication of the present edition. 

 The broad results alone axe of general interest ; but it seems only 

 just tbat particular mention should be made of the services of 

 Senry C. Mart, who has done more to further our knowledge 

 of Irish plant distribution than any other explorer of recent 

 years. 



In selecting from the large mass of records, many thousands ia 

 number, on which the present edition is based, a steady endeavour 

 has been made to preserve the historical element while giving full 

 prominence to the results of modem research. The great majority 

 of the earlier records of unquestioned authority, datiag chiefly from 

 about the beginning of the present century, have been retained, 

 but wherever possible each hfis been associated with a recent record 

 for the same locality. In all cases, and they are not few, where 

 such a revival of the older record has been effected, all the inter- 

 mediate records have been passed over, and a considerable conden- 

 sation of the matter has thus been brought about. At the same 

 time recourse has been had, throughout, to the original or earliest 

 records as distinguished from the numerous apparent confirmations 

 in later works, which are in reality nothing more than unavowed 

 quotations from the originals. In this way a stiU. further condensa- 

 tion has been made, and the space so gained has been given up to 

 modem records showing the extension to new districts of the rarer 

 species. "With many of the less rare plants this extension might 

 jio doubt have been shown by simply inserting in its proper place 

 the number of the new district. But it has seemed preferable, even 

 at the risk of unduly expanding the text, to justify this extension 

 of range by definite records. And, indeed, in some instances 

 localities have been given in this edition for plants which were 

 considered by the authors of the original work as not sufficiently 

 rare to be so treated. One result of this procedure has been to 

 oblige us in some cases to base the claim of a species to a place in 

 a certain district on the naked statement in the first edition that it 

 had been found to occur there. But this failure of ours to discover 

 a definite district record for the plant must not be taken as throwing 

 the least doubt on the accuracy of the entry in the filrst edition, 



