INTEODUCTIOlSr. Ixxi 



introduced into the following pages, and it should be borne in miud 

 that what is given is little better than a selection from a large 

 body of names, many of which are of more local extension or of 

 less precise application. A phonetic rendering of 'the Irish has 

 been added, but in many cases, and, above all, in deaHng with the 

 gutturals so impracticable for English speech-organs, this conveys 

 very imperfectly the sound of the native name. The meaning 

 also is given unless where it is hopelessly obscure. Every Irish 

 plant-name received into the text has been ascertained by personal 

 inquiiies carried on in the counties of Kerry, Clare, Galway, and 

 Donegal to be in actual use among the Irish-speaking peasantry, 

 and the greatest pains have been taken to insure accuracy of appli- 

 cation. Lack of time for more extended inquiry has unfortunately 

 obliged us to leave this feature of the text incomplete. The further 

 study of the subject is earnestly recommended to Irish botanists, 

 especially those resident in the "West. 



Trivial Names. — Although names in the English tongue have 

 been given for almost every species in the text, many of these are 

 not trivial names or, indeed, English names in any true sense of the 

 words. They are often merely translations of the scientific names, 

 but it has seemed best to give them a place in a work which 

 may be frequently consulted by unscientific readers. 



Aggregates and Sub-species. — In a few instances aggregate species 

 have been retaiued, either because the known district extension of 

 the aggregate was greater than the joint known extension of the 

 segregates, or because there was as great a difficulty in selecting any . 

 one of the segregates as type to which the others might be subor- 

 dinated as sub-species as there was in allowing all the segregates 

 to take equal rank as species. Sub-species are distinguished by 

 printing the name in italics in the centre of the page ; varieties are 

 preceded by the contraction Far., the name of the author being 

 affixed in brackets where the plant was originally proposed by him as 

 a species. Where a hybrid or suspected hybrid plant has been named 

 €n the ordinary binomial system, this name has in all cases been 

 retained, followed by the names of the supposed or ascertained 

 parents, thus : — Stachys awihigua Smith — 8. palustris x syhatiea. 



District Distribution. — ^Eor the commoner species the distribution 

 is shown simply by the insertion of the district numbers at the 

 head of the paragraph. In the case of rarer plants, definite locali- 

 ties are given for each district in which they are ascertained to 

 occur. Where the plant is locally abundant or common, definite 



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