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XXXVI.— Oli THE BOTANY OF THE RIVER SHIR, By H. C. 



HART, B. A. 



[Read, May 21, 1883.] 



The river Suir takes its rise in the northern flanks of the Devil's 

 Bit Mountain (1583 feet), in the northern part of the county Tip- 

 perary. Through this county it runs in a southerly direction to 

 Newcastle, on the north of the Knockmealdown Mountains, at the 

 borders of Tipperary and Waterford. From this point, running at 

 first north to Clonmel and then east to the Waterford estuary, it 

 is the southern boundary of Tipperary and Kilkenny and the 

 northern of Waterford. The estuary may be said to terminate at 

 the junction of the Suir and Barrow, about six miles below Water- 

 ford. From this point the tide, however, reaches upwards to a mile 

 and a-half above Carrick, a distance of about twenty-eight miles. 

 From its source to the Barrow junction the Suir is about 120 miles 

 in length. I did not examine the stream below Carrick, which is 

 nineteen miles above the Barrow junction. From Carrick the river 

 is tidal and the banks disagreeable for pedestrianism, while the 

 botany is, I believe, fairly well known. 



Accompanied by a friend, and with average good weather, this 

 tour was very agreeable. The scenery is in many places extremely 

 pretty, chiefly near the source, about Grolden Bridge, and from that 

 to Clonmel through Caher. In some places, as at Knocklofty, 

 there is magnificent timber along the banks, while numerous 

 ruined castles, abbeys, and mills are met with in the most pic- 

 turesque situations. We spent one day on the Devil's Bit, and 

 having found on its north side what we believed to be the Suir, we 

 started ofi with a gay disregard of compass bearings along the 

 source of an eastern tributory of the Shannon. At dusk we found 

 out our mistake, and made our retreat good to Templemore. 

 The following morning, however, we got fairly to work, and kept 

 the banks to Carrick in four days and a-half. In a journey of 

 this kind the variety and abundance of difficulties to be overcome 

 is the chief source of enjoyment. Deep ditches, often crossed with 

 file help of an overhanging tree — tributaries, which had to be 



