36 The Irish Naturalist. February, 



Aforio, mascula, pyramidalis, maculata, incarnata ; Ophrys 

 apifera^ muscifera ; Listera ovata, Epipactis palustris. The 

 best plants seen elsewhere were Comus sanguinea and 

 Geranium columbinum on bare limestone some miles north 

 of Gort. On the 8th I had a long and delightful day over the 

 classic ground of Garryland, and away across the bare lime- 

 stone to the Burren hills, thence to Kinvarra, and back by 

 Garryland to Gort. Garryland is a delightful combination of 

 wild limestone " crag," lake, and wood. Its characteristic 

 plant is Spircea Filipendula, which grows in great profusion, 

 filling some meadows with its cloudy masses of blossom as we 

 may see the Meadow-sweet doing at home. The stunted 

 arboreal vegetation of the " crags " includes the Yew and both 

 species of Buckthorn, as long ago noted by Mr. More ; and 

 the peculiar flora of the western limestones attains here a full 

 development. A level billowy waste of bare grey rock, 

 stretching away to the abrupt grey mountains of Burren, was 

 next crossed. As the Clare border was approached 5. Fili- 

 pe?idula diminished and Dryas octopetala increased. I sampled 

 one or two of the limestone hills (the flora of which has been 

 frequently described), and turning north crossed the low 

 ground to the sea at Kinvarra. The cultivated laud here 

 yielded an unusually varied set of uncommon weeds ; here is 

 a sample list, jotted down in one field : — Papaver Rh<zas, 

 dubium, hybridum ; Lepidium campestre, Brassica alba, Stachys 

 arve?isis, Euphorbia exigua, Linaria Elatine, Valeria?iella 

 de?itata, Centautea Scabiosa, Anthemis Cotula. Kinvarra yielded 

 its quota of plants, and turning eastward agaiu I recrossed 

 the low grounds, and came through the mazy woods of Garry- 

 land to Gort, and next morning returned to Dublin. 



July 11-13 was spent with the Belfast and Dublin Field 

 Clubs on the Boyne ; some brief note of the botany of the 

 excursion has already appeared in these pages {Irish Nahiralist 

 ix., 230-231). On the 15th I revisited Navan, and driving 

 north to Rathkenny, turned eastward to explore the uplands 

 of Slieve Bregh (753 feet), the western end of an irregular 

 Ordovician ridge that crosses Louth and plunges into the sea 

 at Clogher Head. Agrimo?iia odorata, new to District V., was 

 perhaps the best plant found, but the addition of at least 

 twenty calcifuge species to the flora of Meath was to me a 

 matter of greater interest. I rejoined the railway at Dunleer. 



