BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 569 
Observations on the Botany of Great Arran Island, Galway 
Bay, made during an excursion thither in August and Sep- 
tember, 1845; by WM. Anprews, Esq. M.R.LA., Sec. 
to the Nat. Hist. Society of Dublin, &c. &c. 
After a tedious passage of two days and nights from calms 
and dense fogs, I arrived at Great Arran early on the morning 
of August 31, and the day being delightfully sunny, I rambled 
over the north western parts of the island. In several 
enclosures, (for I cannot term them fields, this botanically 
interesting island being intersected in every direction by 
innumerable loosely piled stone barriers or bounds) I saw 
especially near the road leading to the light-house, Helian- 
themum canum growing in such abundance that I am surprised 
thatit has, until this day, escaped the notice of even the 
most indifferent observer. "These dreary and seemingly 
barren sheep enclosures present continued platforms of huge 
limestone flags, and where a separation of the rocks takes 
place, the hollows afford a scanty, but sweet herbage, and 
the botanist is greeted by an assemblage of rare and 
beautiful plants, peculiar to some of the limestone districts 
of Britain. Here Helianthemum canum profusely covered 
the bare rock, insinuating its strong roots so deeply into the 
crevices as to render it difficult to procure good specimens 
for cultivation ; while the delicate little Galium pusillum, so 
Strikingly different in its growth and character from G. saxa- 
lile, Cerastium arvense, var. strictum, similar to the form 
found by me in 1842 in the western Plasket Island, coast of 
Kerry; Arenaria verna, Asperula Cynanchica, and the rich 
purple blossoms of Geranium pratense intermingled with it 
in quantities. The deeper fissures or miniature chasms. were 
lined with the pale green tresses of Adiantum Capillus Veneris, 
the huge leaves of the Irish Ivy, Lonicera Periclymenum, 
Rubus sazatilis and R. cesius. The species of Ferns appeared to 
be few, and, with the exception of the Adiantum, none but 
the common kinds, Grammitis Ceterach, Aspl. Trichomanes, 
