THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
No. 39. FEBRUARY 1841. 
= 
a ae 
XLV.— On Saxifraga umbrosa and the Kerry Saxifrages. By 
the Rey. W. T. BREE. 
To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
GENTLEMEN, 
In the review of Baines’s ‘ Flora of Yorkshire’ (Annals and 
Mag. of Nat. Hist. for Nov., p. 217), mention is made of Saz- 
ifraga umbrosa being “ exceedingly abundant in the west and 
south-west of Ireland.” This, I cannot help thinking, is an 
error; at least, I can confidently state from close inspection 
on the spot, that the plant which occurs in such profusion in 
the “ Gap of Dunloe,” e. g., and on the “ Reecks” and many 
other places in the neighbourhood of Killarney, is not the 
true S. wmbrosa, but an allied species ; or perhaps it might be 
more correct to say, that these Kerry Saxifrages consist of se- 
veral species, two forms or varieties of which are figured in 
‘English Botany’ under the names of S. Geum and hirsuta; but 
whether they correspond with the Linnzan species so named, 
admits, I think, of great doubt. On the mountains of the 
county of Kerry these plants (be they of two, or more, or only 
of one species) occur, as I have said, in very great abundance ; 
and the varieties, differing in the size, shape, and hairiness of 
the leaves, and in the length of the petiole, between what may 
be considered the two extreme links of the chain or series, 
are absolutely interminable*. But after the most diligent per- 
sonal search, I was unable to discover S. umbrosa on the Irish 
mountains, when I visited that country in the year 1814; and 
from the best information I could obtain from persons most 
competent to form a judgement on the subject, I was led to 
believe that the latter species was not there known as a na- 
tive of Ireland. Is it, in fact, a genuine native of Britain ? 
Some years ago I was at no inconsiderable pains to settle this 
question, or, in other words, to meet with S. wmbrosa growing 
* See Haworth’s Saxifragearum Enumeratio. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vi. 2D 
