Clare Island Survey. 



9 

 TREE-GROWTH. 



By A. C. FORBES. 

 Plates I, II. 



Read Afktl 27. Published July IS, 1914. 



The scarcity of tree-growth along the west coast of Ireland and the islands 

 lying along the Atlantic sea-board is so well known that few words are 

 necessary to lay stress on the fact that Clare Island, in common with all 

 islands from Donegal to Kerry, is practically treeless in the strict sense of 

 the word. Tree species exist in several of them, it is true, but it is probably 

 safe to say that no individual specimen can be found at present which 

 attains a height of twenty feet, or which can be said by any stretch of 

 imagination to contain timber. This being so, interest in Clare Island, so 

 far as tree growth is concerned, centres round four main points, namely : — 



1. Scrub and woodland species, of which traces still exist. 



2. Evidence of tree-growth in the past. 



3. Possible reasons for its disappearance. 



4. The connexion between the Clare Island past and present forest flora, 



and that of the mainland. 



With regard to the first of these points, not only have species to be 

 considered which, under more favourable conditions, grow into timber trees, 

 but also those which are invariably or usually associated with woods, and 

 which are able to survive after the original woodland cover has disappeared. 

 In Part 10 of the Clare Island Survey Mr. Praeger gives the following shade-, 

 scrub-, or timber-producing species which are represented on Clare Island : — 



Timber-Producing S^xcies. 



■1. Quercus sessiliflora. 



2. Betula pubescens. 



3. Pyrus Aucuparia. 



B.I. A. PKOC, VOL, XXXI, A 9 



