1909- Prap:gkk. — Botanical Notes from Lough Mask, etc. 33 



had been accomplislied to allow of generalization. On the 

 third daj' I worked round the north half of the lake from 

 Tourmakeady to Ballinrobe. As the island expedition ex- 

 tended from Aughinish near I^ough Carra, to Lusteen in the 

 south-west, and included a walk thence to Tourmakead}^ it 

 will be seen that, when Marshall and Shoolbred's results are in- 

 cluded, materials were now available for a tolerably satisfactor}^ 

 general view of the vegetation of the lake. In the present 

 notes I need only deal with my ov;n observations. 



To take the limestone shore first. This extends from 

 Knocknagool, in the north-east, southward and then westward 

 to beyond Clonbur (Fairhill). It is of the usual low, irregular 

 and much indented type, with man}- outlying reefs. The 

 shore is usually bare and stony, only here and there covered 

 with drift. Where demesnes occur and cattle have been kept 

 off, as below Ballinrobe, it is wooded with native scrub — chiefly 

 Hazel and Hawthorn, with Ash, Birch, Spindle-tree, the two 

 Buckthorns, much Rtibus ccesius, and a little Pynis Aria. The 

 limestone shores proved on the whole unproductive. The 

 characteristic plants include Viola caimia, Hype7'icinn perfora- 

 tum, Pamassia pahistris, Galiuvi boreale, Carliiia vvAgaris.^ 

 A?iagallis tenella, Chlora pe^'foliata., Samolns Valerandi, Thymus 

 Serpyllum. A tract of bare crag-land occupies the shore 

 .south of Carrowaneeragh — a desolate area of slabs and blocks 

 of limestone. Neoti7iea intacta occurs here, amid much Plaji- 

 fago mariti^na \ but the characteristic pavement flora is almost 

 absent, even the species of the adjoining crag-lands of lyougli 

 Carra, such as Aquilegia vulgaris, Riibiapercgrina, and Scsleria 

 cceriilea, being rare or wanting. Sesleria, indeed, an almost 

 invariable concomitant of bare limestone in western Ireland, 

 was seen on Lough Mask only on a low range of rocks that fronts 

 the lake near Knocknagool, with Hieraciuni a^iglicum. -^ Many 

 of the plants which brighten the shores and islands of Lough 

 Carra bj' their abundance, such as Thalictruui collinuvi, Riibiis 

 saxatilis, Lcontodon hispidus, Orchis pyramidalis., Epipactis 

 paltistris. are also either absent from or rare bj' Lough Mask, 

 though at the southern end of the former lake they approach 



3 For the identification of Hieracia my thanks arc due to Rev. E. V. 

 Linton. 



