Ciare Island Survey — Musci ami Iicpalicae. 11-12 3 



The absence of Mosses and Hepatics from what would appear to be 

 suitable habitats cannot be accounted for by the atmosphere of the island 

 being charged with salt during gales from the west, for several Mosses were 

 noticed, the most frequent of which was Milium hornum, which is found 

 everywhere on the island, from sea-level to the top of Croaghmore, the 

 discoloured but flourishing foliage of which, deeply tinged with a tawny 

 hue, gives evidence of the harmless effect of the salt on its tissues. 



At the extreme west end of the island, near the Signal Tower, there is a 

 small morass, which must be in an atmosphere impregnated with salt, and 

 south of this station, but much lower down, at Toormore, are some vertical 

 rocks, facing north, which also are under the influence of the salt in the air, 

 and in both spots there are several species, and some of them very delicate 

 forms, which yet are none the worse of it. 



Searches round the several small loughs were disappointing. Lough 

 Avullin, now only half its former size, owing to the deepening of its outflow, 

 has muddy shores, thickly set with rushes and grasses, where neither a 

 Moss nor a Hepatic was found. Creggan Lough has a neighbourhood 

 abounding in various species of Sphagnum, and this locality may be set 

 down as the head-quarters of the Sphagnaceae on the island. Several small 

 Hepatics were also found on the shore of this lough. The shores of Lough 

 Leinapolbauty and Lough Merrignagh, which are close by Creggan Lough, on 

 the east side of the road, are occupied with wide mats of Sphagnum and 

 Polytrichwm commune, among which some Hypnum revolvens occurs. Lough- 

 na-phuca is near the west extremity of the island, and about 200 yards from 

 the sea. It is very small, and is barren of Mosses and Hepatics. 



No arboreal species of either class was met with on the island, there 

 being very few trees. A few poplars, &c, have been recently planted here 

 and there, and there are a few thickets composed of bushes of Ulex, Corylus, 

 and Salix on a steep bank between Lough Avullin and Knocknaveen. Four 

 species were found on the stems of these last, but they were not, strictly 

 speaking, arboreal. And along a streamlet that falls into the sea at Portlea, 

 there is an ancient shrubbery of Betula, Salix, Corylus, &c, with a solitary 

 Quercus, on the stems and branches of which several Mosses and Hepatics 

 grow. These there is reason to regard as the survivors of the Mosses and 

 Hepatics that abounded on the trees and ground of the primeval forest, the 

 bleached stumps of which stud the ground near Maum and other places, and 

 conjure up the idea of what a congenial habitat their presence formerly 

 provided for our little plants. The bryophytic flora of the island has been 

 considerably changed with the cessation of the forest growth on it. And 

 there can be no doubt that a number of species which originally nourished on 



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