More — On the Flora of Inish-Bofin. 553 



XLYIII. — Repokt ois- THE Floea of Inish-Bofin-, Galttat. By 

 A. G. More, P.L.S., M.R.I.A. 



[Read Apiil 24, 1876.] 



Haying received from the Academy a grant for the examination of the 

 Plora of the 'W^'est of Ireland, I paid, in August, 1875, a short visit 

 to the remote Island of Bofin, feeling desirous to compare the vegeta- 

 tion of another Atlantic island belonging to a different geological for- 

 mation with that of Ai'an, which latter has at various times attracted 

 the notice of botanists, and of whose Flora a tolerably complete cata- 

 logue"^' has been lately published by my friend, Mr. H. C. Hart. An , 

 additional inducement to the choice of this locality was that Mr. 

 M'Millan's recent discovery of the rare Helianthemum guttatum 

 seemed to promise some chance that other rare plants might reward 

 the exploration of Inish-Bofin, especially as this island has seldom 

 "been visited by any experienced botanist. 



I was accompanied by my friend, Mr. B. M. Barrington, whose 

 zealous co-operation I cannot too gratefully acknowledge, and whose 

 untiring activity and botanical skill enabled me to accomplish much 

 more than I could have done single-handed. We landed together on 

 the afternoon of Sunday, the 15th of August, and left the island 

 on the Friday following, having given one day to a cursory examina- 

 tion of the adjoining Island of Inish-Shark, which we found very un- 

 productive in a botanical point of view, as we did not gather upon it 

 a single plant not seen in Bofin. On Inish-Turk we landed for a few 

 hours on our way to Westport, and gathered twenty species which we 

 had not found in Bofin. We obtained excellent quarters and a most 

 friendly reception in the house of the late Mr. M'Cormack, close to 

 the Harbour of Inish-Bofin, and in all our excursions, we found a 

 jDiost trustworthy and intelligent companion in Sergeant O'Connor, of 

 the Boyal Irish Constabulary, whose name is already well known as 

 the discoverer in Bofin of the gigantic cuttle-fish, Architeuthis dux, 

 and who proved himself a most obliging and useful guide to all parts 

 of the island. His local knowledge and influence, exerted on our 

 behalf, in many ways facilitated oiir explorations. 



The Island of Bofin, or in Irish, " Inis-Bo-finne," the Island of 

 the White Cow — so called from the legend of a white cow which is 

 traditionally reported to rise at uncertain intervals on the surface of 

 the small lake named Bofin — lies in the Atlantic Ocean, off the jimc- 

 tion of the two counties, Mayo and Galway, thirteen miles west from 



* "A list of plants found in the Islands of Aran, Gahvay Bay." By H. C. 

 Hart : Dublin. 187o. See also another List, published by Professor E. P. Wright, 

 in " Dublin Natm-al History Society Proceedings, 1866." 



