1893] Search for Neotinea intacta. 379 



trouble to examine them. I shall be curious to hear what you find at 

 Cregmore. 



{May jrd, 1893.} Thank you for your very kind reply to my letter, 

 and for the interesting information you have sent. Your locality at 

 Castle Lambert must be a very rich one to produce so many rare 

 plants . . . There is a small species of Galium, G. sylvestre, which 

 you will probably find a little later in the season. And a fine large- 

 flowered hawkweed, Hieracium iricum, might also be expected where 

 the Dryas grows. Are you quite sure that the Habenaria albida which 

 you found near Moyode may not have been Neotinea intacta ? This 

 mistake has often been made. Have you preserved the specimen, and 

 might I see it ? For I am very desirous to know how far the Neotinea 

 extends. Near Ballyvaughan, in Clare, along and near to the shore, 

 from Black Head to several miles east of Ballyvaughan, there is 

 plenty of it now in flower, I should think, and probably all over Burren, 

 and near Gort also ; so that you will pardon my asking whether the 

 " Hab. albida " could have been the Neotinea. I am very glad to hear 

 that Vicia orobus is so plentiful. It grows also on some islands in 

 Lough Corrib, but has not been gathered there for many years. Indeed 

 you may do a good turn for Botany in Connemara if you will kindly 

 inquire after the Mediterranean Heath, which is now just in flower 

 The only Heath likely to be found in flower so early. Besides Urrisbeg 

 mountain, near Roundstone, it grows, I believe, about the south shores 

 of the Killeries (and abundantly about the base of Mweelrea Mountain, 

 at north mouth of the Killeries). What I wish very much to find out 

 is, whether it grows all round the coast from Killeries to Roundstone, 

 or opposite Bonn Island, or in fact any new localities. It usually occurs 

 at low level, near the sea, and should at this season be conspicuous. 

 A large form of Erica mediterranea is commonly grown in gardens, a 

 large bush 5 or 6 feet high. But the wild plant is only about 2 feet. 

 It should be found near Renvyle. 



1 6th, 1893.} ^ was verv good of you to take so much trouble 

 about the little Orchid. It is, as you seem to have made out, Habe- 

 naria albida. But I think this is very early for it to be in flower. By 

 this time the Neotinea will be quite over, I should suppose. Neotinea 

 (the prize of Burren and Galway) is shorter, has a shorter spike of 

 flowers, and is indeed very like to H. albida, only Neotinea has few 

 leaves on the stem, and one especially prominent about midway up the 

 stem. Its flowers are usually greenish in Burren, and with a slight 

 touch of purple in the Castle Taylor plant. ... I enclose a fragment 

 of Erica mediterranea, which was sent up a few days ago from the 

 shore of Carrowmore Lake, near Belmullet, North Mayo. I have not 

 succeeded in finding out anything new about its distribution in Con- 

 nemara. 



Later in the summer the correspondence relates chiefly 

 to a botanical exploration which, at his suggestion, Mrs. 



