I897-] 209 



THE BOTANY OF A RAILWAY JOURNEY. 



BY R. 1.1,0 YD PRAKGER, B.E). 



As the train steams out of the terminus at Belfast, the high 

 hills which overhang the western end of the city rise into view. 

 In the foreground are tall mill-chimneys and factories built of 

 bright red brick, and the graceful twin spires of St Peter's 

 Church ; and behind rise the brown mountains, the southern 

 escarpment of the lava-plateau of the north-east. The Chalk 

 shows out in white patches on the slopes, where it is being 

 quarried ; higher up the dark basalt forms a sombre capping. 

 This volcanic district has a flora of its own ; and many of the 

 characteristic plants are species usually found on limestone 

 hills. It is on the cliff-ranges of the grand coastline of 

 Antrim that this flora attain its full development ; but even on 

 the rounded hills which look down on us, and on the rocks and 

 in the glens adjoining, some interesting species occur — Vicia 

 sylvatica, Epilobhun angicstifolmin, Circoea alpina, Saxifraga 

 hypnoides, several rare Hawkweeds, Fy7vla media and P. miiior, 

 Orobanchc rubra, Juniperus nana, Eqidsetuni tujibrosicm ; 

 and two others, Adoxa inoschatellina and Eqiciseticm trachyo- 

 don, have here their only Irish habitat. The train now 

 gathers speed as it glides onward, with the populous 

 lyisburn-road suburb on the left, and on the right the 

 marshy stretch known as the Bog Meadows — classic 

 ground to the Belfast naturalist. Close by, on the left, stands 

 the old mansion of Cranmore ; and here it w^as that John 

 Templeton lived and laboured a hundred years ago. He was 

 a man of wide sympathies, a keen observer, a loving and 

 reverent student of nature ; and he was the pioneer of natural 

 history studies in the North of Ireland. The volumes of 

 manuscript which he left behind him, intended to form part 

 of the "Flora Hibernica" which he projected, bear eloquent 

 testimony to his skill and accuracy as an observer, and to his 

 talent as an artist ; it is much to be regretted that no part of 

 his notes or drawings was ever published. 



The train rattles through Dunmurry, and onwards towards 

 Lambeg. By the side of the railway here Vicia sylvatica has 

 come down from the glens on the hills, and grows luxuriantly. 

 Now we speed past the bleach-greens of Glenmore, which the 



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