524 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 

 CASTLE TAYLOR, IN THE COUNTY OF GALWAY. BY 

 A. G. MORE, Trinity College, Cambridge. 



[Read before THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, April 12, 1855.] 



The following short sketch from the pen of a beginner, by no means 

 professes to give a complete account of the peculiarities of this interest- 

 ing district, which is so well known already for several rarities. It is 

 offered as a small contribution towards what has hitherto been so little 

 explored the geographical statistics of West of Ireland Botany. 



Being far removed from the different centres of migration, and 

 without a single prominent example of the Asturian plants so remarkably 

 prevalent in Connemara, the poverty of the Flora is, perhaps, its most 

 striking feature. This deficiency is in part redeemed by the beautiful 

 and interesting limestone and Alpine plants. 



The results now laid before the Society are derived almost exclu- 

 sively from the analysis of about 70 species, while the whole number 

 noticed only amounts to 416 flowering plants, and 16 Ferns; and, 

 allowing that 50 were overlooked, the whole Flora can scarcely be esti- 

 mated at above 500 species. 



The great bulk of the vegetation is naturally made up of such as 

 belong to Watson's " British Type," and it is most curious that many 

 of these generally common plants could not be found. 



The district alluded to is of no great extent, comprising the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of Castle Taylor, and what little could be accom- 

 plished during an occasional excursion to Garryland and Kilmacduagh, 

 which lie about 8 or 9 miles further south. All three places are on the 

 western verge of the great limestone tract, and beyond the direct 

 influence of the sea, from which they are distant some 5 or 6 miles, 

 The surface is broken and rocky, not much above sea level, and affords 

 by numerous subterranean hollows a ready drainage. It is thus, for 

 Ireland, very deficient in water and peat, to which cause may probably 

 be referred the apparent absence of a large number of plants partial to 

 moorish and watery localities. These will be noticed at length under 

 the second head. 



It is a difficult thing to account for certain Alpine species ranging 

 to a lower level in Ireland than in Britain under the same latitude, 

 especially when we know how much fewer they are both in number of 

 species and individuals. Still more so when we find the Alpine hare at 

 sea-level. Can this be ascribed simply to the humid and equable 

 climate, resembling that of the northern Scottish Isles, where the same 

 thing takes place ? or is there a deeper cause dependent on some com- 

 plication of geological changes and conditions ? 



