1893] Letters to an Explorer. 381 



your notes. My sister would rejoice to spend a week or two Jn such a 

 promising" country, but we are bound to Bray at present, and I am 

 myself hardly fit to travel so far. But I know it will be a very great 

 pleasure to see your collections when you have finished the campaign. 

 And I must tell you that I think you are doing very well, and you may 

 be sure that your researches will be very useful. Is there no mountain 

 stream in which you might find the very rare Potamogeton, kirkii of 

 Hooker and sparganifolia of Babington ? It is only known from the 

 one locality, the stream near Maam Hotel. It has long, long, half- 

 submerged leaves, like those of Sparganium. That short-leaved Spar- 

 ^anium you speak of is well worth looking after ..... Allow me to 

 say "bon courage." You are doing very well, and I wish you still 

 further success. 



(July 5th, 1893.} I am afraid that I have been too long in answering 

 your last very interesting letter ; but I have not yet quite recovered 

 from my late illness, and I hope that you will kindly make allowance 

 for an invalid. ... I am very glad that you succeeded in tracing 

 Gentiana verna, and I quite believe with you that Lough Carra is much 

 the more promising lake of the two. I hope you have kept a complete 

 list of all the plants you noticed, . . . and if you have any chance of 

 going back to Carra and Mask this autumn you will be able to add a 

 number of fresh species. I had rather see a complete list, from any 

 well-defined or well characterized district, than a mere list of rarities 

 only ; so that I hope you will be able to continue your explorations of 

 this interesting district, not (so much) with the view of searching for 

 Neotinea as to make sure of all the plants which do grow there. Also 

 please look after any Irish names now in use. These are dying out, 

 and are well worth taking down, if the peasantry can be trusted to 

 know the plant. ... I enclose you a little chapter on the Irish Flora, 

 which I think you may like to read. Please tell me if you find any 

 objection to any of the propositions. Please kindly let me know your 

 address when you return to Ireland, and especially if you are going on 

 with your collecting this season. Another time it will be well worth 

 searching the east shore of Lough Corrib, near Cong, where Dr. Moore 

 found Neotinea, to see how far it extends. Vicia orobus too grows on 

 Lough Corrib. 



The " little chapter on the Irish Flora" was his sketch 

 of " Characteristic and Bare Plants " in " Guy's South of 

 Ireland Pictorial Guide," written in the early months of 

 this year. The correspondence with Mrs. Joyce was again 

 resumed in October, but of course at that season search 

 for Neotinea intacta was out of the question. 



