304 The Irish Nahiralist. [Dec, 



south uniting at one end to form the Moy river, which reaches 

 the sea at Ballina, and at the other to form the Owenboy, 

 which discharges at Ballysodare. Save for some thin native 

 scrub of Oak and Hazel along the rocky flanks of the Mass 

 Valley the range may be said to be bare of wood. 



It is hard to define precisely the limits of the Ox Mountains, 

 and we made no attempt to do so in our four days' survey. 

 Our observations were carried on within the following 

 boundaries : the sea-coast from Balh^sodare to Dromore West, 

 a line from that point south to Lough Talt, the high road 

 thence to Tubbercurry, and the railway back to Ballysodare. 

 Inside of these limits we gathered 366 species of flowering 

 plants and higher cryptogams. Had our areabeen more strictly 

 defined by taking for its northern boundary the high road from 

 Ballysodare to Dromore West, and for the southern the high 

 road from Lough Talt through Coolaney back to Ballysodare, 

 the total of species would have sunk to about 350. 



The flora of the district is undoubtedly a poor one. Out of 

 the total of 366 species observed by us no less than 307, or fully 

 84 i- per cent, belong to Watson's British type plants, common 

 and wide-spread in Ireland no less than in Great Britain ; 22, 

 or say 6 per cent, to the English type ; 15, or 4 per cent., to the 

 Scottish and Highland t3^pes taken together ; and 7, or 

 less than 2 per cent., to the Atlantic type. The neighbourhood 

 of the Ben Bulben district lying not more than fifteen miles 

 to the northward, and the fact that it has been so thoroughly 

 explored by Messrs. Barrington and Vowell, at once invites 

 comparison of its flora with that of the Ox Mountains. 



This comparison brings out in the most glaring way 

 the relative poverty of the latter district. But it must be 

 borne in mind that as 5^et the Ox Mountains have been 

 very imperfectly examined, and that the peculiar structure 

 of Ben Bulben, with its miles of lofty flanking clifis, make 

 it, perhaps, unique in Ireland as a congenial home for a whole 

 group of alpine species. No less than twenty-two of Watson's 

 Highland type plants were observed in the Ben Bulben district 

 by Messrs. Barrington and Vowell in 1884, and to this total my 

 friend, Mr. D'Arcy, was fortunate enough to add Vaccinium Vitis- 

 Ida;a, which he discovered at about 1,950 feet on the north-west 

 slope of Truskmor^ during our few days' ramble in the district 



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