December, 1923. The Irish Naturalist. 117 



STRAY REFLECTIONS ON THE IRISH ALPINE 



FLORA. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, B.SC, PH.D. 



Most of those who read Dr. Praeger's interesting notes on 

 the botanical contrast between Switzerland and Ireland in 

 the October number of this Journal must have wished to 

 learn more of the author's experiences in the Alps and 

 among the glorious flora of those mountains. He tells us 

 in simple plain language what are the features that struck 

 him most in the flora of the Swiss mountains as compared 

 with that of Ireland. Carefully avoiding any controversial 

 subjects such as the origin of the flora, he only briefly 

 refers to their existence. Why should the Swiss alpine 

 plants for instance stick to the mountains, whereas in 

 Ireland a few of the same species are found at low levels ? 

 The author suggests that the low-level Irish habitat of these 

 alpines is abnormal, and he expresses the opinion that the 

 key of this mystery in distribution lies in the past history 

 of the west of Ireland. He also dwells on the surprising 

 fact that these Irish low-level alpines grow mxixed with the 

 most marked southern plants of our flora. 



It is not for the first time that these pecuHarities have 

 been mentioned and discussed in the pages of this Journal. 

 In the fauna, similar cases of distribution have been pointed 

 out, so that the phenomenon is not confined to plants. 

 The older subscribers of the Irish Naturalist will remember 

 the stirring presidential address to the Dubhn Naturalists' 

 Field Club entitled " The Mingling of the North and the 

 South," which was dehvered by our late editor, Prof. 

 Carpenter and pubHshed in this IMagazine (vol. v., 1896). 

 The author quoted many instances of animals of northern 

 or alpine origin which in Ireland occupy the same 

 territory as those which certainly came from the south. 

 And in his opinion the latter had reached Ireland before 

 the " Ice Age " and had probably survived it on some 

 old tract of land, now submerged, to the south or west of 

 Ireland. 



