13 2 



Procrerlwqs of the Royal Irish Academy. 



fact that the greater part of the work on Fungi that has been done in Ireland 

 has been carried out in the neighbourhoods of Dublin, Belfast, and Cork. 



The total number of species and varieties which we are able to record from 

 the Clare Island district is 802. As the detailed lists show, 295 species and 12 

 varieties prove to be new to the Irish Fungus Flora. Of these, eleven species 

 are new to the flora of the British Islands; one new genus — Candelospora, 

 Hawley — and one new species — Hygrophorus (Limacmm) squamulosus Eea — 

 are described. 



It has been said that the lists from Clare Island and the mainland 

 respectively differ widely in character. This is not surprising when we take 

 into account the different types of ground which the two areas present. The 

 island, some six square miles in area, is bare and wind-swept. A large pro- 

 portion of it is under heather ; the remainder consists of tilled land and poor 

 pasture, with a few small patches of low scrub. While the western parts of 

 the mainland in many parts resemble the island, it is not so about Westport, 

 where most of the collecting was done. The ground here is in comparison 

 sheltered and fertile ; there is a fair amount of wood, mostly of mixed type, 

 and the trees in places attain fine dimensions. The character of the fungus 

 flora in these areas, so far as we have been able to explore it, is shown in the 

 following table : — 



Group. 



Mainland ami 

 Achill Island. 



Plasniodiophoraceae 







1 



Phycomycetae 



9 



9 



Hemiascomycetae 



1 







Euascomycetae 



82 



110 



Hemibasidii 



5 



3 



Protobasidiomyeetae 



26 



31 



Autobasidiornycetae 



136 



485 



Fungi Imperfpcti 



24 



28 





283 



667 



It will be noticed that the chief difference between the two lists occurs in 

 the Autobasidiornycetae, where the numbers for the mainland and Achill Island 

 are more than three and a half times as great as those for Clare Island. The 

 following is the proportion of the species and varieties in the leading genera 

 of this group met with in the two lists, and the numbers first mentioned are 



