26o The Iiish Natuialist. [November, 



NOTES ON THE LIMERICK FLORA, 



BY R. LLOYD PRAEGKR, B-E 



Several discoveries of high botanical interest have recently 

 been made by members of the Limerick Field Club ; and as I 

 had an opportunity of studying the plants in question in situ 

 during three da^'S spent in that count}' in August last, I have 

 combined these records with others which appear worthy of 

 publication, and thrown the whole into narrative form. That 

 these notes did not appear earlier is solely d!ue to the time 

 required for working out the identity, distribution, and 

 standing of one or two of the most important plants recorded. 



The flora of Co. Limerick has never been systematically 

 investigated; a glance at " C3^bele Hibernica" reveals a great 

 paucit}^ of records from that county. Recentl}^ (1897) the 

 Field Club commenced the formation of a herbarium repre- 

 senting the flora of Limerick and Clare; and in 1899 Mr. A. 

 Somerville, B.Sc, mostly kindly spent a week in working up 

 a Limerick list for "Irish Topographical Botany." Never- 

 theless further work appeared necessar>% and with this object 

 in view I reached Limerick on the evening of August 14th. 

 The flora of the county turned out unexpectedly rich. Over 

 500 species were listed in three da3^s, and this without tapping 

 the maritime flora of the Shannon estuary, which, as Mr. 

 Stewart has shown, ^ is tolerablj^ extensive. From the brief 

 glance at the flora which I had, I augur for Co. Limerick a big 

 total when its botany is w^orked out, and the addition of some 

 further rarities as interesting as those which it will be my 

 pleasure to record. 



Just before leaving home. Miss Knowles informed me of the 

 finding a few days before of Rnmex rna^dtimics, one of the 

 rarest Irish plants, b}- Rev. Canon O'Brien at Lough Gur, one 

 of the few lakes of Limerick, lying in the centre of the county. 

 On arrival at Limerick, it was with much satisfaction that I 

 examined the specimen at the house of ni}' hosts, the Doctors 

 Fogert}', and found that Mr. R. D. O'Brien's diagnosis was 

 undoubtedly correct. We decided to spend the first da}' at 

 Lough Gur, and next morning Dr. George Fogerty, Mr. R. D. 



^ Stewart : Report on the Botany of South Clare and the Shannon. 

 Proc. R.LA. (3) I., 1890. 



