Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/84

64 ON THE BOTANICAL SUBDIVISION OF IRELAND, 6. LiFFEY AND BOYNE 6. Lower Shannon 7. Upper Shannon 8. North Atlantic 9. North Conn aught 10. Erne 11. Donegal 12. Ulster Coast Kildare. Dublin. Meath. Louth. Limerick. Clare. South-east Galway. North-east Galway. North Tipperary. King's County. Westmeath. Longford. "West Galway. West Mayo. East Mayo. Sligo. Leitrim. Roscommon. Fermanagh. Cavan. Monaghan. Tyrone. Armagh. South Donegal. North Donegal. Down. Antrim. Derry. Lastly, a word as to the numerals used to denote the districts and county-divisions. Babington numbered his first Irish province (South Atlantic) XIX., being the number following that of the last province of Great Britain (North Isles), and similarly numbered the first vice-county (South Kerry) 113 ; and the sequence involved in the latter has been used by Messrs. Groves in their recent paper on Irish CharacecB, their reason, as given in a friendly note to the writer, being that the British Isles form a natural botanical district, of which Ireland is a part. Quite so ; but let us look more closely into this matter. According to Watson's arrangement, as first put forward in Cybele Britannica, and now universally adopted, the vice-county numbering in Great Britain commences in the Atlantic counties of Cornwall and Devon, which in all Britain have botani- cally the nearest affinity to the characteristic flora of Ireland ; yet in the county list they are removed from the allied districts of Ireland by the whole length and breadth of England, Wales, and Scotland. The county-numbers in Great Britain led us gradually northward, from Cornwall right up to the Shetlands, and the largeness or smaUness of the figures themselves thus afford a useful clue to the northern or southern range of a species ; but, according to this scheme of continuous numbering, the moment we pass 112 we plunge from the almost Scandinavian flora of Shetland into the luxuriant southern flora of Killarney, thence to proceed by degrees