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Notice of a new Indigenous Heath, found in Cunnamara. By 

 JAMES TOWNSEND MACKAY, M.R.I.A. A.L.S. 



I BEG leave to state to the Royal Irish Academy, that, in an excur- 

 sion made to Cunnamara, in the latter end of last month, I disco- 

 vered a species of Heath, (Erica Mediterranean) not known before 

 as being indigenous to Britain or Ireland. 



It grows on a declivity, by a stream, in boggy ground, at the 

 foot of Urrisbeg mountain, near Roundstone, on its western side ; 

 occupying a space of above half a mile in length, and covering be- 

 tween two and three acres of ground. 



The Mediterranean Heath is also indigenous to Portugal, from 

 whence it appears to have been first introduced into the British gar- 

 dens ; and it is the principal Heath of Corsica. 



In gardens it forms a handsome shrub, from three to five feet 

 high, and is very ornamental in spring, which is its flowering 

 season. 



I may also mention that the Menziesia polifolia, (Erica Dabeoci 

 Linn — Saint Dabeoc's Heath, or Irish Heath, very abundant on the 

 sides of mountains, and on dry Heaths all over Cunnamara, and in 

 the county of Mayo, as far north as Croagh Patrick, although no 

 where else found in Britain or Ireland,) is, as well as the other, indi- 

 genous to the south of Europe ; being found on the western Pyre- 

 nees and at Anjou. A variety of this last, with white flowers, of 



VOL. XVI. z 



