222 -M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
by the English in the plains and open countries, leaving the woods and mountains 
to the Irish, were great defects in the civil policy, and hindered the perfection of the 
conquest very much.”—Sir J. Davis, Quarto Edition, p. 36. 
In 1586, when Sir Richard Bingham marched to put. down an insurrection of the 
Burks, the distinction is made between the mountains and the woods, thus—‘‘ he im- 
mediately marched to the Abbey of Balintubber, from whence he sent his foot and 
kerns into the mountains and woods.”—/Vare’s Annals. 
In the Pacata Hibernia, Desmond is described as being a desolate country —‘ the 
whole country being nothing else but mountains, woods, and bogs.”— Pacat. Hiber. 
p- 538. ; 
Patterson has given plenty of instances of the growth of trees in exposed and high 
situations in modern times. Templeton, in the 8th Vol. Transactions of the Royal 
Trish Academy, says—“ The Laurustinus is one of those plants that were introduced 
to Ireland before green houses were known, consequently planted in the open 
ground, and experience shows that it is seldom hurt by frost.” 
In the same volume he also states, that at Fair Head, the northern extremity of 
Ireland, the mountain ash, birch, and oak, grow luxuriantly within fifteen or 
twenty yards of high water mark. 
In the 4th number of the Dublin Philosophical Journal, there is an account given 
of a number of plants naturalized under the climate of Ireland; by James Townsend 
Mackay. It would take up too much space to enumerate them, but the paper shows 
the great mildness of our climate, and proves that it is not becoming more ungenial, 
as a person might be led to think by reading Hamilton’s Memoir on the Climate of 
Ireland. It is not to be supposed that the great mildness of our winters is of any 
recent origin, although it has been promoted by draining and cultivation. 
Patterson, in describing the celebrated Arbutus at Mount Kennedy, states that in 
1773, its age then exceeded one hundred years. 
Some suppose that the arbutus which grows in such abundance at Killarney, was in- 
troduced by the Spaniards in the reign of Elizabeth. It was probably introduced by 
the monks'at a much earlier period... Smith, in describing Innisfallen in the Lake of 
Killarney, says—‘‘ There are besides timber trees, the remains of several fruit, trees, 
as plums, pears, &c. which have outlived the desolation that hath seized on the cells of 
those recluses who first planted them,” 
There can. be little, doubt but that apple trees, were cultivated in Ireland, before 
the time of Henry I]. An apple tree is mentioned in the life of, St. Columba. , The 
story of St. Kevin andthe apples may be cited; but. one of the most authentic docu- 
ments we have relating to Ireland, St.. Bernard’s Life of; Malachy, proves that there 
were apples in Ireland— 
“ Accelera inquit fer illi tria poma.” 
Vita Malac. cap. 23. 
