194 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



The flat, damp, sandy waste, stretching from the beach 

 inland to Corragaim Lough, is covered with a close sward, 

 in which (Enanthe Lachenalii, Sagina nodosa, Parnassia 

 palustris, Lcontodon hirtus, Epipactis palustris, Habenaria 

 conopsea, Scirpus paticiflorus, Carex dioica, Selaginella 

 selaginoides, are characteristic species. As the ground 

 gets wetter, Sium crccium and Carex tcrctiuscula come 

 in, with Bidens cernua var. radiata, and in the water is 

 Eleocharis acicidaris, unrecorded from West Mayo, and a 

 Pondweed of the pectinatus group. The rocky bluffs 

 adjoining on the southward rise from the sand -plain in a 

 steep scarp, clothed with an almost impenetrable belt of 

 scrub full of fallen blocks, Hart's -tongues, and nettles, but 

 possessing less floristic interest than the other types of 

 ground. On the knolls above grows Carlina vulgaris, which 

 has one of its few other stations off the limestone or limy 

 sands on Inishturk, just opposite ; with it are Juniper us nana, 

 Antennaria dioica, Campanula rotundifolia. Thymus Cha- 

 maedrys, Agrimonia odorata, and in sandy ground further 

 southward Viola Curtisii, Ranunculus bulbosus, and much 

 Ophioglossum vulgatum. Another deep inlet, filled with 

 flat, damp sand, adjoins on the southward. Here a stream, 

 which comes down from Mweelrea and sinks long before it 

 reaches the sea, is banked up at each tide, and at the very 

 head of the inlet it yields Scirpus T abernaemontani , S. 

 rufus, Salicornia herbacea, (Enanthe crocata, and Ruppia 

 rostellata. It is overhung by rocky bluffs, supporting 

 stunted trees of Populus tremula, Quercus sessiliflora, Betula, 

 Ilex, and Corylus, with an undergrowth including Thalic- 

 irum collinum. Erica mediterranea, Dabeocia polifolia, 

 Osmunda regalis, Saxifraga umbrosa. 



I think it will be seen from these notes how curious and 

 varied is the flora of this remote place — the typical Conne- 

 mara flora adjoining and in some cases mixing with plants 

 which we associate with the limestone plain, and which are 

 brought in here owing to the presence of limy sands ; and 

 both associated with marsh and salt-marsh floras of interes- 

 ting types, which would well repay ecological study. 



Dublin. 



