November, 1903. 277 



THE FIvORA OF CIvARE ISLAND. 



BY R. I.I.OYD PRAKGE^R, B.A., M.R.I. A. 



Ci^ARK ISivAND appears to be the only one of the larger islands 

 lying off the Irish coast, the flora of which has not hitherto 

 been systematically examined. Tory, Rathlin, Lambay, the 

 Saltees, Blaskets, Aran Islands, Inishbofin, and Inishturk, the 

 Donegal Aran, have all been the subject of botanical repoits 

 or papers ; Achill has been visited by many botanists ; but of 

 the flora of Clare Island, save for a couple of stray notes in 

 Cybele Hibernica by Miss Emily Lawless, the records are 

 silent. I have long been curious about the natural pro- 

 ductions — to use a quaint old term — of Clare Island, and 

 especially of the noble peak on its north-western side, over 

 1,500 feet in height, which drops sheer into the ocean in one 

 grand precipice. Last July I had an opportunity of satisfying 

 my curiosity. My wife and I spent a week on the island, 

 studied its vegetation pretty thoroughly, and did some 

 desultory zoological collecting. In view of the peculiar in- 

 terest attaching to the flora of insular areas, especially of those 

 lying off the western coast of Ireland, I have treated the 

 subject of the present paper in greater detail than is usual in 

 botanical contributions to the Irish Naturalist. 



Clare Island lies across the entrance of Clew Bay; and while 

 distant some 15 miles from the land at Westport and Newport, 

 only three miles of sea separate it from Emlagh Point, which 

 forms the southern entrance of the bay, and the same 

 from Achillbeg and the Curraun Peninsula, which form the 

 northern entrance ; but these channels are deep and open, and 

 in the full swing of the Atlantic roll. Inishturk lies 9 miles 

 10 the south-west, with Inishbofin beyond : Achill, as already 

 mentioned, a few miles to the north. The island is roughly 

 triangular in outline, measuring about 4 miles by 2J miles. 

 Its area is 6j square miles, of which about one-third is under 

 tillage or pasture, the remainder consisting of stony heath, 

 thin bog, or maritime sward. The dominating feature of the 

 island is the great east and west ridge (Croaghmore), attaining 

 an elevation of 1,520 feet, which occupies much of the northern 



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