INTEODUCTION. Ixxv 



papers quoted from, a large mass of unpublislied notes by the 

 editors and others have been made use of. 



Citation of Published Records. — In quoting fr'om the numerous 

 papers on Irish botany published within the last thirty years, the 

 necessity for some contracted scheme of reference very soon became 

 apparent. It was decided to adopt one ■which would show at once 

 the author of the paper and the date of its publication, thus giving 

 the authority for the plant and the approximate date of its discovery. 

 The author's surname directly followed by the date of his paper 

 gave in almost all instances a clear and concise reference. Only in 

 the case of double authorship was it found necessary to resort to the 

 use of initials. "Where an author was foimd to have published two 

 or more papers in the same year these were distinguished by Greek 

 letters affixed to the contraction. In illustration of this scheme the 

 following instances may be taken : Sart i88^, denotes a paper pub- 

 lished by Mr. H. C. Hart in 1883, the precise title and place of 

 publication being found by reference to the Alphabetical List of 

 Papers Again, Sart i88j a, and Sort i88j /?, denote second and 

 third papers published by the same author in the same year, the 

 particulars of title and place of publication being found, as before, by 

 reference to the list. As an instance of double authorship, the con- 

 traction -8. Sf V. i88s denotes Messrs. Barrington and Vowell's 

 Report on the Flora of Ben Bulben, published in 1885 ; S. SfP. i8g2, 

 Messrs. Stewart and Praeger's Report on the Flora of the Mowrne 

 Mountains, and so on through the various papers quoted from. 

 The various books, papers, journals, &c., denoted by the contrac- 

 tions used, whether in this or in the first edition, may be readily 

 found by reference to the Alphabetical List. Throughout the 

 text, observations made by the editors of the first edition are 

 distinguished by the names, Moore or More, those made by the 

 editors of the present edition by the initials N. G. or R. W. S. ; 

 and with a very few exceptions, such as, Eev., Prof., Miss, and 

 Mrs., all titles and appellations have been discarded for the sake of 

 brevity. In the case of observations by weU-known Irish botanists 

 here published for the fiirst time, the surname alone is used. Thus 

 Hart, affixed to entries in the present edition, without any date 

 following the name, denotes a hitherto unpublished record by H. C. 

 Hart, the author of the numerous papers set out in the Alphabetical 

 List, and similarly with the names Barrington, Stewart, Levinge, 

 Praeger, PhiUips, and others, and with the initials iV. C. and R. W. S. 

 In general, where an entry concludes with a personal name and 

 nothing more, the entry must be taken as a record here published 



