42 The Irish Naturalist* February, 



THE INTERNATIONAL PHYTO-GEOGRAPHICAL 

 EXCURSION OF AUGUST ign- 



BY R. LLOYD PRAEGER. 



A scientific excursion of more than ordinary interest was 

 held during August of last year, and it seems only right that 

 some record of at least the Irish part of it should appear in 

 the pages of the Irish Naturalist. This trip was organised 

 by the Central Committee for the Survey and Study of 

 British Vegetation, and under their auspices a number of 

 the leading phy to -geographers of the world were invited 

 to spend a month in touring through the British Isles under 

 the guidance of members of the Committee, visiting a number 

 of places chosen as displaying characteristically the various 

 types of vegetation found in these islands, or as being of 

 special interest floristically. Assembling at Cambridge on 

 August I, three weeks were spent in England and Scotland 

 exploring the Cambridge district, the Norfolk Broads, the 

 Yorkshire dales, the Southport sand-dunes, the Lake 

 District, Edinburgh, Ben Lawers, The Trossachs, and 

 Glasgow, under the general guidance of A. G. Tansley, with 

 local assistance from other members of the British Vegeta- 

 tion Committee. The party landed in Dublin on the morning 

 of Sunday, August 20. It was made up as follows : — Pro- 

 fessor F. E. Clements and Mrs. Clements of Minneapolis ; 

 Professor W. C. Cowles and Mrs. Cowles of Chicago ; 

 Professor Drude of Dresden ; Dr. Graebner of Berlin ; Dr. 

 Lindman of Stockholm ; Professor Massart of Brussels ; 

 Dr. Ostenfeld of Copenhagen ; Dr. Riibel and Professor 

 Schroeter of Zurich ; G. C. Druce of Oxford ; Dr. C. B. 

 Crampton of Edinburgh ; and A. G. Tansley of Cambridge. 

 Professor W. E. Praeger of Kalamazoo, Michigan, joined the 

 party for the first day ; also my wife and I, who accompanied 

 them throughout their stay in Ireland. In the forenoon the 

 party visited the Botanic Gardens of Trinity College, where 

 they were received by Professor H. H. Dixon ; the after- 

 noon was devoted to Glasnevin Gardens, where C. F. Ball did 

 the honours in the absence from home of Sir F. W. Moore. 



Next morning the 7 a.m. train was taken to Clifden. 

 The railway company provided a saloon carriage, which 

 facilitated a study of the country and the exchange of 



