191 1. CoLGAN. — An Irish Naturalist in Spain. 3 



Saint Dabeoc's Heath {Dabeocia polifolia). — On p. 403 

 describing a journey from Pampluna to St. Jean Pied-de- 

 Port by Burguete and Roncesvalles at the western end of 

 the Pyrenees, Bowles has the following passage of con- 

 siderable interest to Irish botanists as illustrating the 

 endurance of rigorous climatic conditions by our Connemara 

 or St. Dabeoc's Heath : — 



All the mountains of Burguete have a deep soil yielding rich pasture 

 for cattle, but the situation is so elevated and cold that it produces 



neither wheat nor barley Amongst the plants I noticed here 



were the Yellow Foxglove, Lychnis, Hypericum or St. John's Wort, 

 Wild Mallow, Holly, Saint Dabeoc's Heath {Erica cantabrica niyrti folio 

 subtus incano magna flore) the Raspberry, Euphrasia, and the Red 

 Whortleberry. All of these plants grow and bloom in a country covered 

 with snow for five months in the year. 



The height at which Bowles here gathered St. Dabeoc's 

 Heath was probably about 2,000 feet, and the country is 

 described by Count Henri Russell in his Grandes Ascensio7is 

 des Pyrenees as recalling by its verdure " the humid and 

 mountainous Ireland." 



The Potato introduced to Ireland from Spain. — 

 In the following passage of his chapter De Algunas Plantas 

 de Espana Bowles contributes something to the vexed 

 question of the origin of potarto cultivation in Europe : — 



Potatoes came from America and were brought by the Spaniards to 

 Galicia whence they have spread all over Europe. The first place to 

 which they were carried from Galicia was Ireland, where they throve to 

 such a degree that they have become almost the sole sustenance of the 

 people. 



As De Candolle has shown in his Origin of Cultivated 

 Plants, Sir Walter Raleigh was anticipated by the Spaniards 

 in the introduction of the potato to Europe. Whether he 

 was anticipated by some Galician trader in the introduction 

 of the root to Ireland, is a question not easy to decide, for 

 Bowles indicates no authority for his confident assertion 

 that the potato first reached our island from Galicia. 



Irish Hounds exported to Spain.— In a ver}?^ 

 interesting chapter on the Basque province of Biscay {De 

 Vizcaya en General) occurs the following passage, referring, 

 perhaps, to the Irish wolf-hound, which it is well known 

 was frequently exported from our island in former days; 



a2 



