30 Mr. J. BalFs Botanical Notes of a Tour in Ireland. 



is not rare on the Irish mountains), and here for thirty years 

 has been known to grow a single frond of the rare Tricho- 

 manes brevisetum. On the south side of the stream, below the 

 waterfall, and elsewhere in the same neighbourhood, grows a 

 species of Nephrodium which Mr. Mackay considers identical 

 with N. dumetorum of Smith. The plant however by no 

 means agrees with the specimen in Smithes Herbarium, which 

 is nothing but a small diseased specimen of N. dilatatum. 

 The present specimen differs widely from any of the forms of 

 that variable plant which I have seen ; how far these differ- 

 ences may be permanent is of course a question to be deter- 

 mined by more experienced botanists than myself. Near the 

 same place I have observed a concave variety of a Nephrodium 

 of the spinulosum tribe*, which may possibly be the same as 

 the variety of N. dilatatum mentioned by the Rev. W. Bree in 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv., though it differs very constantly both 

 in form and habit from that plant. I have found it also on the 

 Great Sugar Loaf in the County of Wicklow and on Curslieve 

 Mountain in Mayo. > 



Salix herbacea may be gathered on rocks at the summit of 

 Djouce mountain, and is, I believe, found in similar situations 

 on other mountains of this group. Upon the great Sugar 

 Loaf, which, like other mountains composed of quartz rock, is 

 exceedingly unproductive both in animal and vegetable life, 

 almost the only plant of interest is the Melampyrum monta- 

 num, Johnstone. This plant, which I have met in a similar 

 situation on Curslieve in Mayo, is found by the side of the 

 largest gully on the east side of the mountain ; it preserves 

 very constantly its distinct habit. I am not aware whether it 

 has ever been remarked that the form of the lowest pair of 

 leaves is always obovato-lanceolate, being quite different from 

 that of the superior ones. In boggy ground, at the north-east 

 base of the mountain, grows the Wahlenbergia (Campanula, 

 L.) hederacea, mentioned by Mr. Mackay as growing upon 

 this mountain. In the Dargle, near the bed of the river, may 

 be found Meconopsis cambrica, and Bromus giganteus /3, and 



* The name spinulosum appears more applicable to this than to any plant 

 of this genus, the serratures of the pinnules being all tipped with stifl" hairs, 

 which converge towards the extremity of each pinnule. 



