j9o6. Prakger. — Geographical DhtribiiHon. 93 
The same plan may of course be applied to Watson's map of 
Great Britain divided into 112 Vice-counties. Great Britain 
presents more difficulty than is met with in the case of 
Ireland, on account of the greater diversity of size of the units 
of area ; and the agglomeration of small counties in North 
Wales and the East I^owlands tends to distort the positions of 
the numbers when they are allotted each an area equal to the 
average. Nevertheless it will be seen from the annexed 
diagram of the British Islands (fig. 6) that the geographical 
features as seen on the map are reproduced fairly satisfactorily, 
and with sufficient accuracy for practical use. But it is possible 
that some botanist having a fuller acquaintance than I enjoy 
with the flora and topography of England and Scotland may be 
able to improve on the arrangement of some of the Vice- 
counties as given above. 
There is of course nothing new in the application of letters 
or numerals in type to express graphically geographical 
distribution. So long ago as 1890 Mr. P. Chalmers Mitchell^ 
suggested a scheme on this principle for illustrating the 
distribution of animals in the great zoological regions of the 
world; but I do not find that any attempt has been made 
hitherto to use a method of the kind in such detail, or to apply 
it to our own islands. The advantage of the plan, as I have 
said, is its ease and cheapness ; by it we can, in fact, map 
without maps. 
If we wish a less elaborate scheme for the British Isles on 
the same principle, we have, as regards Great Britain, Watson's 
18 Provinces to fall back upon, and also his 38 Vice- 
provinces. In Ireland we have the 12 Districts proposed 
by Babington, and used in Cybele Hibernica. These latter 
correspond more nearl}^ as regards area with Watson's Vice- 
provinces tnan with his Provinces, and therefore the Vice- 
provinces are more suitable for using in conjunction with the 
Irish Districts. Watson's Vice-provinces and Babington's 
Districts combine to make an excellent diagram, as shown 
on next page. 
^ A. Graphic Formula to express Geographical Distribution. Froc. 
Zool. Soc. Loud., 1890, pp. 607-9. 
A3 
