FERNS FOUND IN CONNAMARA. 221 



E. sylvaticum sparingly on the banks of small streams. 



E. Telmateia flourishes on the banks of several streams: some specimens 

 measured upwards of three feet in height j and several of the branched fronds 

 were surmounted by a catkin. 



E. arvense abounds wherever the land has been brought into cultivation. 



Lomaria spicant is very common on the road-sides. 



Pteris aqidlina: common. 



Polypodium vuJgare occurs in considerable abundance. 



P. pliegopteris: this fern I only found in one locality. Two miles from the 

 residence of J. Ellis, is a mountain which rises nearly two thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea, and which I had been climbing with a companion, 

 and an Irish labourer for a guide. We had just visited, with the help of 

 ropes, an Eagle's nest, and were descending a somewhat steep and very rocky 

 side of the mountain, when I found a few small plants of P. phegoptens iu 

 a wet chasm of the rocks. 



Polystichum aculeatum and P. angulare: plants of well-marked character of 

 both these species are not unfrequently met with. 



Lastrca oreopteris occurs very sparingly on the banks of one or two small 

 streams. 



L. Filix-mas: abundant. 



L. multiflora: common. 



i. spinosa: frequent. 



L. recurva: this species grows in considerable abundance among the loose 

 rocks on the banks of a mountain stream, which flows from a lake behind 

 Bengooria; and after passing through some high boggy ground, enters, by a 

 series of beautiful cascades, into a rocky valley; sometimes flowing in a narrow 

 channel between almost perpendicular rocks, which in several places widen, 

 and form a sort of natural amphitheatre, at the bottom of which is a deep 

 pool, generally abounding with trout. Most of the specimens were of a very 

 marked character: the lower pair of pinnae were largely developed, each leaflet, 

 more especially in the barren fronds, being concave, and the whole frond 

 very closely resembling in general habit that of L. rigida. 



Athyrium filix-foemina is one of the commonest Ferns, 



Asplenium adiantuvi-nigrum occurs in considerable abundance, I believe 

 invariably on limestone rocks. 



A. marinum grows luxuriantly on High Island, about twelve miles from 

 Letterfrack. This island is quite a small one, but is surpassed by few in 

 the neighbourhood for the beauty of its clifis, and for the miniature fiords 

 which run into them, and into which the sea sometimes breaks with the 

 most imposing grandeur. The island is not inhabited, but it is used as a 

 Roman Catholic station; and the ruins of a church and two crosses carved 

 in stone are to be found upon it. I found several plants of this fern, in 

 which the fronds are very deeply serrated, some almost doubly pinnated. 



A. rut a muraria I only found in one locality, on an isolated limestone 



