1961. PraKGKR. — Botanical Field-work in 1900. 31 



trotting. Bearing some miles east of Frankford, I made for a 

 mysterious depression in a vast bog, marked Tumduff on trie 

 maps. It is a flat grassy tract, dotted with willow and birch, 

 and yielding a marsh rather than a bog flora — Vaccinium 

 Oxycoccos, Melampyrum pratense, Orchis incarnata, Cladium 

 Matiscus, Carex limosa, Osmunda regalis, were among the 

 rarer species. Thence westward over endless bog, across a 

 deserted road, to I,ough Boora, a lonely and desolate bog 

 lough. On the way thither I found a large breeding-colony 

 of Black-headed Gulls among a maze of pools, the margins of 

 which were bright with the alien flora which these birds bring 

 with them from the cultivated lands. Rhynchospora fusca 

 turned up near L,ough Boora, for the third time in King's Co. 

 In the afternoon I rode to Pallas L,ough and gathered some 

 plants, but awful thunder-showers, which could hardly be 

 surpassed by tropical rain, compelled a retreat to Tullamore, 

 and half submerged the county. 



June 22 found me in Carrick-on-Suir. The short first day 

 was spent in working across the Waterford hills to Portlaw, 

 and back by the river. An outcrop of Old Red conglomerate 

 south-east of Carrick yielded Corydalis claviculata in abundance, 

 and the limestone near Portlaw added several species to the 

 extremely limited calcicole flora of Waterford. Next day I 

 made a pilgrimage to the famous Slievenaman, in South 

 Tipperary, which, though one of our loftier Irish mountains, 

 had never, so far as I can make out, been ascended by a 

 botanist. At the southern base of the hill a good calcifuge 

 group was met with, the best plant being Filago minima. On 

 the summit (2,364 feet) Carex rigida was the only alpine, but 

 the view was worth a dozen alpine plants. A long walk 

 brought me back to Carrick. An evening stroll revealed the 

 plant of Carrick-on-Suir — Bromus diandrus — growing in 

 profusion on walls, and the rare Nasturtium sylvestre was 

 gathered on both sides of the river ; it has been already 

 recorded from further up the Suir, at Clonmel. That night I 

 shifted quarters to Cahir, to continue the exploration of 

 South Tipperary. The 24th was spent in working down the 

 Suir to the picturesque village of Ardflnnan, thence across to 

 the lovely river- gorge at Knocklofty, and back to Cahir. 

 This is an undulating fertile limestone district, hemmed in 

 by the fine mountain-ranges of the Galtees, Knockmealdowns, 



