220 



The Irish Naturalist. 



October, 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



The numbering of the Botanical County-Divisions of Ireland. 



I need hardly say that the difficulty to which Mr. Waddell refers 

 {supra, p. 197) was fully before me during the years in which I worked at 

 the question of the botanical subdivision of Ireland. The more I studied 

 the question, the more m}^ mind recoiled from that totally unscientific 

 and misleading numeration which, beginning in Cornwall and proceeding 

 to vShetland, would pass thence without a break to South Kerry. 

 The solution of the difficulty which occurred to me at the time, and 

 which I would now suggest, is a very simple one ; namely, to use a 

 prefix (I) to the Irish numbers, which would distinguish them from 

 corresponding English ones. The Britannic series would then run i, 2, 

 3, . . . 112, Ii, I2, I3 . . . I40. The series Ij, I2, I3, . . . I40 is as easy 

 and as short to write, print, or say as 113, 114 115, .. . 152, so there 

 exists no practical difficulty against its adoption ; and I submit that 

 scientifically it is infinitely preferable. Another point worthy of mention 

 is this : that the numeration i ... 40 for the Irish divisions having 

 been adopted in a book that may fairly be called a standard work, 

 the advantages of following the same system, unless it be so bad as to 

 be untenable, are sufficiently obvious. I do not claim that the numera- 

 tion which I adopted is perfect, but the absurdity of using one scheme 

 for the Flowering Plants and Vascular Cryptograms, and a different one 

 for those plants which follow next, would undoubtedly strike a by- 

 stander. Whatever plan Mr. Waddell adopts, I cannot think that his 

 suggestion of accepting the forty divisions of " Irish Topographical 

 Botany," and numbering them 113 to 152, will meet with approval. 

 This would be hopelessly confused with Babington's scheme, in which 

 a different set of divisions is numbered 113 to 149. and with that adopted 

 by English conchologists, in which a still different series is numbered 

 113 to 148. Both of the latter schemes have been receutlj' used in 

 important books or papers, and must be regarded as in esse. 



The whole question of a satisfactory scheme is hedged round with 

 difficulty, but it seems to me that the latest suggested improvement 

 will only make confusion worse confounded. I also, like Mr. Waddell, 

 would ask the opinions of others. 



R. PraEGER. 



Dublin. 



Achill Island Plants. 



Three days spent in Achill last July, though not specially devoted to 

 botany, were productive of a few additions to the flora of the island, as 

 listed by me last year {Irish Nat., xiii., 278), and of new stations for some 

 rarer plants. One of the additions is a really rare plant, namely, 



