1883] Stimulating Exploration. 301 



CHAPTER XLII. 



STIMULATING EXPLORATION. 



[1883.] 



" I THINK you should be settling about some fresh district 

 to be explored this season, and make your application to 

 the Academy soon," runs his first preserved letter (dated 

 January 2Oth) of 1883. It is addressed to Mr. Stewart, 

 who was now, in conjunction with Mr. Corry, planning a 

 work on the Flora of the North-east part of Ulster, and to 

 whom he again writes on February 8th : 



Thank you for the newspaper, and I was much interested in your 

 account of Rathlin. In your report to the R.I. A. you had better repeat 

 something of the kind as an introduction, to make your report less dry. 

 And now about the coming season. To help your intended Flora of 

 Ulster, I think you should do some of the less-known ground in Ulster, 

 and I. cannot think of any more likely or less investigated ground than 

 Cavan. I have been in Achill, and I can tell you it has hardly a rare 

 plant. I only recollect Eriocaulon and Erica mediterranea. Also 

 H. C. Hart has been there and found very little. Erris in Belmullet, 

 the Mullet, and Binghamstown, and round the large lake Garrowmore 

 is a promising district, and you can easily find quarters. If you prefer 

 to leave your own ground, I should say take either Belmullet and Erris, 

 including the Mullet ; or the North of Limerick, bordering on the Shan- 

 non and its coast, together with the North bit of Kerry down toTralee. 

 Of this we know scarcely anything, and it would be interesting to find 

 the north limit of the Kerry plants. Either of these two districts, 

 viz. : 



N. Limerick and N. Kerry, 



or 

 Erris and Belmullet, 



would be well worth attention ; and I know you will not forget the 

 Potamogetons. I think I saw Artemisia maritima and Althaea officinalis 

 near Foynes, from the railway carriage ; and if you want a change to 



southern botany Foynes is the place to start from Look again 



carefully at the Pimpinella. There is a form of P. saxifraga very decep- 

 tive, and so like to magna it has taken in many botanists. Better write 

 soon and put in your application to R.I. A. 



