1857.] DIXGLE AND ITS FLORA. 99 



dented by a succession of bays, and presenting a varied succession 

 of bold and commanding headlands. Still more distant lay tbe 

 Blasquet Islands, with their lofty and jagged cHflFs, rising sheer 

 from the bosom of the broad Atlantic, which for many a league 

 stretched out as far as the eye could reach, — its white -crested 

 waves chasing the laughing sunbeams which glanced on the 

 waters. This picture had a breadth of light and shade thrown 

 on it by the light hazy clouds which flitted between the spectator 

 and the distant prospect, and gave a finish to the whole which 

 would defr the artistes power to imitate. To the north-east an- 

 other and scarcely less majestic prospect lay before me, — the 

 gloomy valley of Arra Grlyn, wild and desolate-looking to an 

 extreme. It seemed as if the mountain had been halfway cut 

 through fi'om its very base, and that the work had stopped short, 

 leaving its sides as rugged precipices, and its floor a pavement of 

 stone, on which nothing claiming kindred with herbage could 

 find a home, and which here and there was hollowed into dark- 

 looking pools. 



But I must not forget that my special business is with the 

 Flora of Brandon, which is not despicable. The base of the 

 mountain is clothed with Erica cinerea and Teiralh: (this latter 

 I collected with white flowers), and the usual Grasses and Sedges 

 which aflect moorlands. Along with these were Cladonia unci- 

 aUs, C. iurgida, C. rangiferina, and C furcata, and several Scy- 

 phophori. StiU higher up, and beyond the heaths, Lecidea geo- 

 graphka appeared, along Avith other hchens of the same genus, — 

 Lecanora parella, and others. About this range I collected a 

 fine specimen of Poly gala, with very bright deep-blue flowers ; 

 perhaps it may be the same plant as is found on Ben Bulben, 

 Sligo. A Httle higher, Saxifraga umbrosa, L., with its varieties 

 punctata and serratifolia, appear ; also /S." Geuni, L., S. stellaris, 

 L., and not improbably ,?. elegans and S. Mrsvta. In the same 

 region also are Veronica officinalis, L., and Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 

 Though likely to be found in the same neighbourhood^ I cannot 

 certainly say that I observed a single plant of P. grandiflora, L. 

 Keai' the summit, Armeria puhescens, Link, becomes plentiful, 

 and at the summit Saxifraga hirta, Don, and, if really distinct, 

 S. affijus, Don. These latter plants cover over a small space, a 

 few yai"d^ square, where some small erection appears to have 

 been at one time; and that which 1 take to be -S. affinis is for 



