May. 1900.] Ill 



BOTANICAL NOTES ON THE GALWAY AND MAYO 



HIGHLANDS. 



BY NATHANIKIv COI.GAN, M.R.I.A. 



It may sound like a paradox to say that the botanical survey 

 of an Irish mountain region derives a peculiar zest from the 

 very poverty of our flora in alpine species. Yet the assertion 

 may be made with perfect truthfulness. That the rapture of 

 discovery varies directly with the rarity of the object sought 

 for, that the value of the thing attained is measured by the 

 labour of attainment — these are time-honoured truisms in 

 every system of proverbial philosophy ; and their essential 

 truth is daily borne in upon the mind of the botanist who 

 devotes himself to the exploration of any of the mountain- 

 groups of Ireland. The fans of the Alpine Club-moss, which 

 he spurns with callous feet on the slopes of Snowdon, he half 

 worships when they meet his longing eyes in the Wicklow or 

 Kerry highlands ; and so with many others of our alpine 

 species — unconsidered trifles abroad, they become for him 

 objects of enthusiasm at home. 



It was with a full knowledge of this appetizing poverty of 

 the Irish highland flora that my friend, the Rev. Canon d' Arcy, 

 and myself turned our faces westward early in July last, bent 

 on a fortnight's scrambling and plant-hunting amongst the 

 Twelve Bens and the mountain massif lying east of Dhoo 

 Lough in Southern Mayo. We had carefully studied before- 

 hand Mr. H. C. Hart's admirable Report on the Flora of the 

 Mayo and Galway Mountains,^ indeed, we had carried it with 

 us the year before in ascents of Muckanaght and Mweelrea, but 

 it was with no intention of revising his work that we decided 

 to follow in his track. Let it be said at once that we added 

 nothing to the tale of alpine species observed b}^ Mr. Hart 

 seventeen years earlier, but that we learned a deeper respect 

 for his powers as a botanist and a scrambler. The work which 

 he did so well in one month we should have felt proud of 

 doing in three, and, gleaning where he had reaped, we were 

 satisfied with discovering a few new stations for the rarer 

 plants. 



^ Proc R.I.A.^ 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 694. 



