Clare Island Survey — Trec-GroiOth. 9 ;} 



with little undergrowth. A third patch lies between the harbour and Portlea, 

 at the same elevation as the first, and contains Birch, Hazel, and Willow, and 

 is also heavily grazed. A fourth, south-west of the harbour, is practically all 

 Willow, and occupies the slope of a steep bank facing north-west, at about 

 100 feet elevation. 



In addition to these four patches of scrub, bushes of Willow, Blackthorn, 

 Holly, Hazel, Mountain Ash, and Birch occur east of a line between Knock- 

 naveen and the lighthouse, and suggest that this area was originally covered 

 with similar scrub before cultivation and grazing had destroyed it. 



Of the reproductive powers of the various representatives of this forest 

 flora little can be said, except that seedlings of Willow, Birch, and Mountain 

 Ash occur in various places. Hazel was flowering at Portlea at the end of 

 March, 1914, and may possibly ripen nuts in a good season, as they 

 occasionally ripen at Glendarary on Achill, ten miles to the north-east. 

 Holly grows about to high -watermark at Portlea, but whether it berries freely 

 at the present time is doubtful. An old resident states that he often found 

 the shells of the acorn in the turf bogs, and also remembered seeing the 

 berries on the Holly bushes, but not later than about twenty years ago. 

 Mr. Garvie, agricultural overseer on this island, writes:—" I have asked this 

 man, and several others, about the hazel nuts, and they all say they do not 

 remember seeing any growing on the island." 



It is highly probable that the condition of this scrub cannot be taken as 

 a fair index of the island's climate, as grazing, cutting, &c, have interfered 

 with it to a considerable extent. But it is evident that the Oak suffers 

 more than any other species from sea-wind, Hazel coming next. The 

 growth made by the Oak in 1913 was found killed back quite two-thirds 

 of the length of the stems in March of 1914, while many shoots of Hazel 

 were uninjured, although the growth of previous seasons had shared the same 

 fate as that of Oak. Willow and Birch are also affected by the sea-wind in 

 the same way, but not to the same extent ; but Mountain Ash and Holly 

 appear unaffected, the former species seeding itself up to 500 feet on the 

 north side of Knockaveen. 



2. Evidence of Teee-Growth in the Past. 

 To obtain evidence of previous tree-growth on Clare Island, it is necessary 

 to go further back than the oldest inhabitant, and investigate the stumps and 

 trunks found in the patches of bog which occur more or less generally, and 

 which give undeniable evidence of a more vigorous forest growth than that of 

 recent times, and of the occurrence of one species (Pinus syhestris) no longer 

 found on the island as a native tree. 



A 2 



