266 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF IRELAND. 



By R. F. Scharff, Ph.D., B.Sc, M.R.I.A. 



A /TANY naturalists still look upon the animals 

 and plants of Ireland as representing 

 nothing but an impoverished British fauna and 

 flora. Though the Irish fauna and flora are 

 poor as compared with Great Britain, they 

 exhibit some features of extreme interest, some 

 species being present which are not found else- 

 where in the British Islands, but in such distant 

 lands as Southern Europe or North America. 



Writers of monographs on portions of the fauna 

 and flora of Great Britain and Ireland have gone 

 so far as to more or less ignore the latter country. 

 Even at the present day treatises are being issued 

 on the fauna of the British Isles without Ireland 

 ever having been visited by the authors, or without 

 their having even examined a complete series of 

 specimens from there. I hope, therefore, that the 

 few general remarks which I propose to make, on 

 some of the more noteworthy animals and plants 

 occurring in Ireland, may induce some of the 

 English and Scottish naturalists to devote more 

 attention to their sister island than they have 

 done hitherto. 



When we consider the fauna of Ireland as 

 a whole, what strikes a casual observer first, 

 is the absence of such familiar forms of life 

 as the common shrew mouse, the mole, the 

 weasel, the various kinds of voles, and many 

 other mammals. Instead of the common English 

 hare, we find in Ireland the arctic or moun- 

 tain hare. But here it is not confined to the 

 mountains as in Scotland, the Pyrenees or Alps ; 

 it lives in the plain as well as in the mountains. 

 To the philosophic naturalist this fact suggests an 

 interesting problem as to the origin of the arctic 

 hare. The fact, at any rate, flatly contradicts the 

 view generally upheld of this hare having been 

 driven to the mountains because the climate of the 

 plain, after the glacial period, became unsuitable 

 for its requirements. Moreover, in Ireland this 

 hare does not change its dress to white as it does in 

 cold countries, but remains in its brown summer 

 fur throughout the winter. 



Ornithologists will look in vain for the nightingale 

 in Ireland, whilst birds familiar to the English 

 naturalist, such as the wryneck, red-backed shrike, 

 reed warbler, and green woodpecker are so scarce 

 as not to deserve being admitted into a list of the 

 Irish fauna. 



Snakes are altogether absent from Ireland, and 

 the whole class of reptiles is represented by only a 

 single species, viz., the common viviparous lizard 

 (Lacerta vivipara). Even the frog, which is abundant 

 enough in Ireland, is by many Irish naturalists 

 denied the right to be considered a true native, and 

 among the newts only one kind has hitherto been 

 observed. 



When we examine the invertebrate fauna of 

 Ireland, we find that in many groups the numbers 

 of species compare favourably with those of Great 

 Britain, being in some cases almost equal. Thus 

 in the land and freshwater mollusca Ireland is not 

 far behind Great Britain in point of the total num- 

 ber of species, whilst the former include some very 

 peculiar species altogether absent from the rest of 

 the British Isles. A beautifully spotted slug 

 (Geomalacus maculosus) occurs among the lichens 

 which grow so luxuriantly on the rocks in the 

 counties of Cork and Kerry, but has not been found 

 elsewhere except in North Western Spain and 

 Portugal. Not far from whence this remarkable 

 slug was first discovered lives a water-snail in a 

 small and almost inaccessible lake, the like of which 

 occurs nowhere else in the world. It has hitherto 

 been known as Limnaa involuta, though it is more 

 likely to belong to quite a distinct genus. 



Among butterflies, moths and beetles, there are 

 some varieties, though probably not more than one 

 or two species, peculiar to Ireland. A couple of 

 caddis - flies have recently been discovered in 

 Ireland which had not previously been recorded 

 as British, and the large Irish house - spider 

 (Tegenaria Uibernica), and also a woodlouse (Tricho- 

 niscus vividus) are not known in Great Britain. 



Almost all of these more remarkable invertebrates 

 have been discovered on the west coast of Ireland, 

 but the fauna as a whole is much less rich in 

 species than the East coast. An interesting fact 

 is that the great majority of these animals are 

 either found in Southern Europe or have their 

 nearest relations there. 



Now when we examine the flora of Ireland, we 

 also notice that although as a whole it is poorer in 

 species than that of Great Britain, some interesting 

 forms are confined to the former country. Thus 

 the strawberry-tree [Arbutus unedo), the London- 

 pride, or St. Patrick's cabbage, as it ought to be 

 called (Saxifraga mnbrosa), the large bell heath 



