112 The Irish Nahiralist. [May, 



On July loth we established ourselves in Martin Joyce's 

 roomy cottage at Cloonacarton, Glen Inagh, scarce a mile and 

 a half from Recess railway station and within easy distance of 

 the highest summits of the Twelve Bens. Here the vagabond 

 botanist finds an ideal resting-place, where he can " enjoy the 

 comforts of home combined with moderate charges," and with 

 perfect freedom to surround himself with that litter at once so 

 essential to his happiness and efficiency, and so odious to the 

 ordinary hotel manager. When one stands in Joyce's rough 

 meadow, where the Dabcocia trails over the rocky knolls, the 

 shapely pyramid of Ben Corr is the point that above all others 

 catches and holds his eye. The great rock-buttress, stretching 

 eastwards from the summit and crowned with what seems to 

 be a very steeply pitched arete, looks most seductive to the 

 climber, especially when viewed in the evening light Irom a 

 boat mid-way up the lake ; at all times and from all points of 

 view the whole mountain, a grey mass of arid stone, looks 

 absolutely repulsive to the botanist. 



Our first day's scramble on Tuesday, nth July, was up Ben 

 Corr by this rock-buttress. The hoped-for arete turned out to 

 be a delusion. It was merely a steep staircase of shattered 

 quartzite, flanked here and there by cliffs, and the poverty of 

 the flora even exceeded our expectations. Though we followed 

 the high ridge running south from Ben Corr to the summit of 

 Derryclare Mountain and descended thence to Derrj^clare I^ake, 

 keeping well over 2,000 feet for a considerable distance, we 

 found only two alpines, Ardostaphylos Uva-ursi diWA Jzmiperus 

 7ia7ia. The first occurred rather sparingly, the second was 

 most abundant, and spreading out in wide sheets tipped with 

 the tender green of the young shoots, gave a peculiar character 

 to the summit-ridge and the higher slopes. Great bosses of 

 Thrift, rosettes of the Fox's Cabbage {Saxifraga timbrosa), and 

 occasional sheets of the Sea Campion {Silene viaritima) relieved 

 the monotonous hue of the naked rocks, and here and there 

 Saint Dabeoc's Heath was found flowering up to fully 1,800 

 feet. 



Next day, July 12th, we crossed the naked Maam Turk 

 range by the well-marked maum or gap between the rocky sum- 

 mits of Ilian and Derryvoraihedha into the lonel}' Glen Glosh 

 without noting a single plant of interest ; the 13th was rainy, 



