1859.] FLORA OF IKELAND. 355 



moschata is found in many parts of the neighbourhood. Campa- 

 nula rotundifolia, so common in Scotland, 1 seldom or never saw 

 in Ireland ; and Digitalis purpurea and Sarothamnus scoparius are 

 by no means frequent. Parietaria officinalis is extremely common 

 everywhere in Ireland, literally covering the walls of old castles 

 and old buildings of every description. The common Ivy {Hedera 

 Helix) occupies similar situations, but it is not content with 

 buildings ; for, like the Convolvuli and other climbing plants of 

 the West Indies, it mounts to the top of the highest trees, in- 

 vesting their stems and branches with a rich vesture of evergreen 

 leaves. 



From Carlow I next proceeded to Naas, about twenty-five or 

 twenty-six miles northward; there I found few, if any new plants. 

 I got a dwarf species of Ophioglossum vulgatum in a marshy 

 locality about a mile north-east of the town, and Sanicula euro- 

 pcea about a mile to the south, and Verbascum Thapsus near the 

 same place ; in a ditch, Samolus Valerandi, and in the canal, 

 Glyceria aquatica, six feet in height. I left Naas in February, 

 1853, and proceeded to Galway. To the west of the town along 

 the north side of the bay I gathered Malva rotundifolia; pro- 

 ceeding westward, found on a rock Sedum villosum (?), I think. = . "•^ 

 Near this spot Glaux maritima grew abundantly and luxuriantly, d^-^iy^^^ 

 and Honckenya peploides among the stones and sand on the 

 beach. Still steering westward, 1 found, upon a tongue of ele- 

 vated land jutting into the mouth of the bay. Dry as octopetala, 

 displaying its snowy blossoms to the waves of the Atlantic, ele- 

 vated only a few feet above highwater mark ; there it grew freely, 

 exposed to the briny spray and the sweeping tempest. Its usual 

 and only station (this excepted) is high mountains or hills, but 

 in this miniature peninsula it thrives at the level of the sea. 

 About one hundred yards to the north arises a barren promon- 

 tory (to the farmer it may be so, to the botanist it is otherwise) , 

 with little to be seen upon it but a few stunted bushes of the 

 Ulex europceus, and occasional examples of Rosa spinosisshna, 

 and straggling stems of Erica cinerea, but to compensate for this 

 deficiency, there is one " bonny gem " growing in abundance, the 

 Gentiana verna ; this low, unassuming plaint, with its petals of 

 dazzling azure, covers the summit and southern side of this lonely 

 wilderness, far removed from the busy haunts of men : it is here 

 " born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



