io8 The Irish Naturalist. 



to-day what Mr. Hart found it in 1869, the most primitive 

 of the three islands, and the visit of a stranger is still 

 regarded as an event. As I strolled up from the landing- 

 place towards the fine old cyclopean fort in the centre of the 

 island, peering into the fissures of the limestone, and pausing 

 now and again to jot down the species observed, I soon found 

 that I was not the only one engaged in taking notes. I had 

 only to raise my head sharply to set other heads ducking be- 

 hind stone walls, or to catch glimpses of red petticoats flashing 

 into ambush round the corner of some boreen. The net 

 result of the two hours spent in Inishmaan was the addition of 

 three species to the flora of the islands, Erophila ver7ia from 

 the old fort, Pyrus malus from the track to Ballintemple, one 

 tortured shrub spread flat like a juniper over the limestone, 

 and Raiucnculiis baudotii from shallow rock-pools north of 

 Ballinlisheen. Maiden-Hair was rather frequent in the north- 

 west of the island, and Ceterach officinarum less rare than in 

 Aranmore and Inisheer. No trace of Helia^ithenium canujjz or 

 Astragalus hypoglottis was observed either here or in Inisheer, 

 though the latter was found in Inishmaan by Mr. Ball in 1835. 

 As no botanist, of the many who have visited the islands, has 

 reported the Heliantheviuvi from Middle or South Island, it 

 may fairly be set down as confined to Aranmore. 



We landed at Inisheer soon after two o'clock, and here I 

 secured very comfortable rooms in the house of Mr. Michael 

 Costello, a retired constabulary sergeant, who takes an intel- 

 ligent interest in his native Irish tongue. Two days were very 

 pleasantly spent in exploring Inisheer, without, however, 

 making any additions to the flora of the islands. Most of the 

 prevalent limestone species of Aranmore were equally abun- 

 dant in Inisheer. Gentiana verna, now almost past flowering 

 (May 28th), occurred frequentl}^, as in the other two islands, 

 though apparently nowhere so abundant as on the limestone 

 drift of Gentian Hill, and the promontory on the opposite shore 

 of Galway bay, where it grows so freely down to sea-level, 

 associated with another alpine species, Dryas octopetala. These 

 curious isolated masses of drift, with their distinctly alpine 

 flora, resemble nothing so much as slices of dead moraine, slid 

 down bodily from some snowy range, carrying with them their 

 freight of alpine plants. 



.Maiden-Hair in some parts of Inisheer is abundant and 



