.554 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



Their number is fewer than might have been expected from the similarity 

 in position and climate of these two districts. These species are : 

 Trichomanes radicans, Sibthorpia europcza, Carum verticillatum, 

 Carex punctata, Rhynchospora fusca, Helianthemum guttatum, 

 Asplenium lanceolatum, Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, H. Wilsoni, 

 Bartsia vis cos a t Viola Curtisii, Simethis bicolor. 



The most interesting species occurring on the borders of our district 

 is the rare little Orchid Neotinea intacta, which was discovered by 

 myself and my sister, Miss F. M. More, nearly thirty years ago, at Castle 

 Taylor, in the county of Galway, and has since been ascertained to grow, 

 in some plenty, throughout the Burren district of Northern Clare, on the 

 same upper carboniferous limestone. It has also been found on the 

 shores of Lough Corrib, near Cong, associated there, as in Burren, with 

 Potentilla fruticosa and Gentiana verna. The last locality extends 

 the range to Mayo. 



It is very remarkable that at Castle Taylor, as in Burren, we find 

 this Mediterranean Orchid, a species as eminently southern as is the 

 Arbutus, growing alongside of such Alpine species as Dry as octope- 

 tala, Gentiana verna, Hieracium iricum, Selaginella selaginoides , 

 Sesleria ccerulea, and Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi. Neotinea intacta, 

 and, with it, Rubia peregrina, Ophrys muscifera, and O. apt/era 

 grow together, a little above sea-level, and associate with the corn crops 

 of Watson's " Agricultural Zone." So that it becomes difficult to say 

 whether we are dealing with alpines descending into the agricultural 

 zone, or with plants of the lowest agricultural zone in a very abnormal 

 association. At any rate, we have here a commixture of zones, nowhere 

 lse to be found in the British Isles, and which, we think, may be fairly 

 attributed to the exceptional humidity of the Irish climate, as well as to 

 past geological changes and migrations. 



All the West-Irish plants may be considered as species which are 

 common to the West of France, the Pyrenees, and the Spanish Penin- 

 sula, and four of them occur also on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 This is sufficient to show the presence of a well-defined group of West- 

 European species on the western shores of Ireland. And in the same 

 way, the general British and Irish flora is almost altogether related to 

 the European, in such a manner that we may suppose it has immigrated 

 from the adjoining Continent, and is, in character, such as we might 

 expect if the British Islands were not separated by the German Ocean, 

 the British Channel, and the Irish Sea. It would appear that Alphonse 

 De Candolle was right in accepting the theory that the immigration of 

 our flora (and fauna) was effected through the former continuity of 

 land, and that our islands were not colonized by water and air 

 transport, across the narrow straits which now separate them from 

 their former home. It is different with the spores of Cryptogamic 

 plants, which are easily carried by the wind, and whose unexpected 

 presence in our Islands may, in this way, be accounted for ; the dust-like 

 seeds having been wafted, perchance, for many hundred miles across the 

 Atlantic Ocean. 



