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white varieties of most of our wild heaths are occasionally found, it 

 occurred to nie it might also be the case with this species ; and after 

 a laborious search I found a plant with white flowers, which I believe 

 to be the first instance of the kind on record, rendering it both impor- 

 tant and valuable. This variety appears to connect the two nearly- 

 allied species still more closely, which most botanists consider to be 

 distinct, though they are united in DeCandolle's Prodromus, where 

 E. Mediterranea is described as the var. /3, of K. carnea. At this 

 early part of the year few of the other wild plants of the country had 

 made much progress. I, however, observed one, which I had never 

 before distinguished satisfactorily, namely, the wild morello cherry 

 [Prmius Cerasus of Linnaeus). This species has, until lately, been 

 mixed up with Prunus avium by British botanists, which is a much 

 larger tree, producing its flowers in greater clusters, though smaller 

 individually than those of P. Cerasus. The plants were growing 

 near the side of the river which passes Ballina, on the demesne of 

 Colonel Gore, where they did not appear to be scarce. Sesleria cae- 

 rulea, a species of grass, which is, I believe, confined to the western 

 counties of Ireland, was in full flower near the same locality, and 

 growing within tide-mark. In England and Scotland this is consi- 

 dered a subalpine grass, and only grows in mountainous districts at 

 considerable elevation ; it is, therefore, singular to rind it prefer so 

 low a level in Ireland. Expecting to find some rare mosses and 

 lichens, I ascended Nephin Mountain, from the Crosmolina side. 

 The common plants on it vvere the sea pink (Armeria maritima) and 

 a well-defined variety of Saxifraga umbrosa, resembling S. hirsuta 

 more than any other in the roundish outline of the leaves, with 

 sharply-crenated edges. Their foot-stalks were, however, different 

 from those in the true S. hirsula, being nearly smooth and flattened 

 on the upper surface. The number of species of Saxifraga and their 

 abundance on the mountains in the west and south of Ireland, with 

 the number of Ericaceous plants which occur there, constitute most 

 remarkable features in our indigenous botany, such as are not to be 

 observed elsewhere in Britain, indicating the meteoric and physical 

 characters to be different to those which influence other parts of the 

 country, as they are the circumstances which are known to affect ve- 

 getation in the highest degree. By observing the configuration of the 

 west coast of Ireland on the map, and comparing it with the east 

 coast, the reason why the two sides of the island have different 

 climatcs,and consequently a different vegetation, seems obvious enough. 

 The deeply-indented margin of the former shows a very irregular out- 



