PREFACE 



TO THE FIEST EDITION (1866). 



In explanation of the title whicli we have adopted, as the name of 

 Cyhele may not, like that of Flora, be familar to our readers, it 

 will be well to premise that Cybele was worshipped formerly as the 

 goddess of the Earth in Asia. Her name was first introduced in 

 connexion with modem botany by Mr. H. C. "Watson, who con- 

 sidered that it might appropriately express the distribution of 

 plants upon the Earth's surface, and who accordingly employed it 

 as the title of his great work, " Cybele Britannica." 



The present work originated in a desire to furnish not only 

 a revised list of the wild plants of Ireland, but also a classified 

 summary of their localities. Thirty years having now elapsed since 

 the publication of Mackay's "Flora Silerniea" within which 

 period many additions have been made to Irish Botany, many plants 

 have become better known, and the range of others has been 

 greatly extended. With the view of meeting the requirements 

 of Geographical Botany, we have endeavoured to arrange our 

 materials somewhat after the plan of Mr. "Watson's " Cyhele 

 Britannica " (whence our title) ; and thus we hope that the details 

 collected will be found methodized in such order as to be available 

 to those who study the range of plants, while the traveller will also 

 be able to use our book as a botanist's guide through Ireland. 

 "With three excellent and portable "Moras " in the hands of British 

 Botanists, it has been thought unnecessary to draw up fresh 

 descriptions of the Irish species; this would have too much 

 increased the bulk of our volume without adding to its usefidness. 



