514 



Menzesia. The sand-hills of Lahinch are covered with Asperula Cy- 

 nanchica and Viola lutea, and numbers of plants peculiar to the sand 

 hills of the west, amongst which I plentifully gathered Polygonum 

 maritimum. From thence I journeyed by the coast to Miltown, pass- 

 ing by the cliffs near Spanish-point, where grows abundantly sam- 

 phire, Aster Tripolium of a large size, Lavatera arborea, and many of 

 the beautiful Orchis tribe. 



My time being limited, I pursued my way from the hotel at Mil- 

 town Malbay, across the wild and exposed beach of Cassina, where 

 enormous blocks of rock, of many tons weight, have been rolled up 

 by the furious surges of the Atlantic. I turned up the deep defile, 

 through which the little river Anna falls into the ocean — a river famed 

 for its delicious white trout and fine salmon : its steep banks on either 

 side were covered with a brushwood of Salix caprea, the hazle, Prunus 

 spinosa, and a variety of Rubi. Opposite the romantically situated 

 mill was the salmon-leap, w'here many a fine fish has been gaffed: the 

 leap is over-shadowed by magnificent trees of Salix pentandra. 



Crossing the bogs en route to Kilrush, I visited several of the nu- 

 merous lakes that are spread over the great bog of Mon Mor : here I 

 was rejoiced to meet in profusion the white water-lily {Nymphaa al- 

 ba) and Nuphar lutea, called in Irish, Billeog bhaithe buidhe — the 

 yellow drowning leaf. I explored several turloughs, but could no- 

 where see Po ten till a fruticosa. 



But what gave me the greatest delight was the discovery, in several 

 pools in the bog, of Eriocaulon septangulare, which Mr. Mackay, in 

 his admirable 'Flora Hibernica,' says is confined to Connemara; and 

 with it, in a small lake, grew a species of Elatine, Alisma natans and 

 Lobelia Dortmanna. Rhynchospora alba, a variety of Carices, the 

 three species of Drosera, Scutellaria minor and Radiola Millegrana, 

 were abundant in the bogs around, and the drains were filled with 

 Utricularia minor and vulgaris. The luxuriance and beauty of Erica 

 Tetralix were rich in the extreme ; and had I not seen in my own 

 county, the magnificence of Menziesia, and the delicate beauty of the 

 compact and profusely flowering Mackaii, I should indeed have con- 

 sidered it surpassing. 



My stay in Kilrush was but short, the steamer starting with the 

 early morning tide for Limerick. 



Charles Carter. 



Oranmore, Galway. 



