34 Mr. J. Ball's Botanical Notes of a Tour in Ireland. 



seen it except in potato fields ; a fact somewhat corroborative 

 of the opinion as to its being a luxuriant variety of G. Tetrahit. 

 In the neighbourhood of Enniskillen, on the banks of Lake 

 Erne, I found Circcea intermedia and Galium boreale ; and in the 

 same locality many species of Mentha might probably be dis- 

 criminated by a botanist acquainted with that difficult genus. 

 Perhaps the mountains of Sligo offer the most promising field 

 to the inquiring naturalist of any part of Ireland. I may 

 mention the results of a hurried visit to Ben Bulben, which is 

 already known to be a habitat of Arenaria ciliata and many 

 other rare plants ; on the limestone ledges at the north-west 

 angle of the mountain I found Dry as octopetala, Silene acaulis, 

 Saxifraga hypnoides and Aizoides, Juniperus nana, and a very 

 diminutive variety of Thalictrum minus, which has possibly 

 been mistaken for T, alpinum, said to grow on this mountain. 

 A little to the east, on the northern face of the rock, I gathered 

 a very large glabrous-fruited form of Car ex recurva, probably 

 the C. Micheliana of Eng. Bot., and in the same spot Poly- 

 gonum viviparum, not mentioned in the Flora Hibernica ; but 

 in a notice in the Mag. Nat. Hist, since pointed out to me, 

 I find that it was gathered nearly in the same spot many years 

 ago by Mr. Murphy. Proceeding eastward along the ledges 

 of limestone, which abound in fossils, particularly many spe- 

 cies of corals, I found growing in company with Sesleria cceru- 

 lea a grass new to the British Flora, the Koeleria valesiaca, 

 Gaud. Near the same place I noticed Asplenium viride, Cy- 

 stopteris fragilis, &c. On the bogs between Sligo and Bal- 

 lina I gathered Gnaphalium rectum, Osmunda regalis, and 

 Juncus nigritellus, Eng. Bot. Supp., a plant apparently quite 

 distinct from J. lamprocarpus ; and near the coast Raphanus 

 maritimus and Scirpus Savii, /3. monostachys, a form which I 

 have also noticed in Wicklow. Near Ballina Gentiana Amarella 

 occurs with white flowers. In the great boggy district of Ty- 

 rawley, the herbage consists principally of Rhyncospora alba, 

 Schcenus nigricans, Eleocharis palustris, Drocera anglica, and 

 Osmunda regalis, with a few T of the more common carices and 

 junci. After passing the night at a cottage about seven miles 

 from its base, I next day ascended Curslieve, one of the highest 

 mountains in theErris group. By the side of a stream, descend- 



