(3o The Irish Natnralist. June, 



for the spread of science and culture in the country to 

 which he had bound himself by ties of affection and 

 interest, strong enough to weather to the end the cruel 

 disappointments and trials which seem inevitably to follow 

 in the wake of political revolution. 



W. B. Wright. 

 M. C. Wright. 



]\Ianchester, May 14th, 1924. 



SAXIFRAGA UMBROSA NATIVE IN THE WICKLOW 



MOUNTAINS. 



BY A. W. STELFOX, M.R.I. A. 



That some of the less easily accessible cliffs amongst the 

 higher mountains of Wicklow might yield botanical 

 surprises has always appeared possible, especially so as the 

 mountainous area around Lugnaquilla has never been 

 systematically explored. It may have been with some 

 such thoughts in our minds that ]\Ir. J. P. Brunker and I 

 visited the head of Glenmalure on nth May last, though 

 upon such an early date, in a backward season, great 

 expectations were not spoken of. To return home, therefore, 

 with Saxifraga nmhrosa in our bag was an undoubted 

 surprise, as the probabihty of this conspicuous plant having 

 escaped detection could hardl}^ have been foreseen. 



Yet it grows in some three places, at any rate, on cliffs 

 at an elevation of at least 1,500 feet between the head of 

 Glenmalure and Lugnaquilla, in the townland of Ballinaskea. 

 If one stands at the ford five miles above Drumgoff and 

 looks southward across the main valley, one faces a deep 

 side-valley or corry surrounded on three sides by cliffs ; 

 those to the south have been smoothed b}^ an ice-fall from 

 an upper corry (lying to the north of the summit of 

 Lugnaquilla) during the Glacial Period ; but those to the 

 east and west are precipitous and would appear to have 



