18 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 



picked tip a few rare mosses. On the sand-hills near Lackan I found 

 Distich ium inclinatum in fruit — a species which, so far as I am aware, 

 is confined to the west and north-west of the island. ITypnum abietinum 

 grew along with it, which is also a rare species in Ireland. I also ob- 

 served Blysmm rufus, Carex distans, and Carex externa growing together 

 in a salt marsh near Killala, and Arabis hirmta on dry places, showing 

 that those species reach the extreme west of the country. 



Having thus given a brief sketch of the prevailing and rarer plants 

 of this remote portion of Ireland, with the exception of Achill Island, 

 which I never was in, I will now make a few observations on the for- 

 mation of the extensive bogs there. 



In no other part of Ireland are better opportunities afforded for 

 seeing the gradual increase of red bog going on than in the barony of 

 Erris. The small lakes are numerous, and are being gradually filled 

 with the plants growing around and in them ; besides, the more solid 

 portions are likewise in their primitive state of formation. I examined 

 many spots, from which the turf was cut, and also the sides of deep 

 gulley3, but saw nothing to alter the views I expressed in the commu- 

 nication I made here at the Meeting of the British Association on that 

 subject in 1858. 



From the bottom of the deepest cuttings to the present surface, the 

 debris of the same kinds of plants constitute the mass which are now 

 growing on it. But what appears to me worthy of recording in this 

 instance is, the circumstance of large quantities of roots and trunks of 

 trees, consisting of Scotch firs, birch, and alders, lying buried in the 

 bogs of this extensive and now treeless county. I noticed them in many 

 places, but especially on the shores of Carrowmore lake, and on the flat 

 bogs between Bangore and Tullachan Bay. To a utilitarian mind, this 

 suggests the basis of improvements in Erris. The kinds of trees which 

 grew there at no very remote period would, unquestionably, grow again 

 if planted, and proper care taken of them at first, though the country 

 people say they will not, in consequence of being exposed to the great 

 storms of wind which so frequently occur on that bleak coast. Not- 

 withstanding this statement on their part, if my advice were asked on 

 the subject, I certainly would give it unreservedly to the proprietors of 

 the country to persevere in planting, were it only to afford shelter to 

 cattle, and improve the herbage they feed on. 



At present, the latter is chiefly made up of a few of the coarsest 



