370 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



■windows, being represented/ Innishtooskert, has an isolated pin- 

 nacle of rock, with a great chasm in the cliff near it, scarcely less 

 striking. The Tearaght is like a black tooth projecting from the 

 ocean, its sides being rocky, desolate, and very barren. The landing 

 is here effected with difficulty, even in calm weather. Myriads of 

 sea-fowl, especially Puffins, swarm on the ledges of this distant 

 island^ which is nine miles from the mainland. 



I observed that the cliffs on the northern face of all the islands 

 were rather more productive in species than those on the south side. 

 This is especially the case with the Great Blasket, and may in part 

 be attributed to the greater frequency and violence of south and 

 south-westerly winds, which in exposed situations would, doubtless, 

 have an injurious influence on the growth of plants. 



On the northern cliffs of the Great Blasket I noticed Luzula 

 sylvatica plentiful, Scilla nutans and Mymenophyllum unilaterale : 

 these are not found on any other island on the west coast of Ireland 

 that I am aware of. Primula vulgaris, Valeriana offi,cinalis, Lychnis 

 flos-cuculi, Viola sylvatica, Cardamine pratensis, and other plants may 

 be gathered here also, giving the vegetation an inland appearance. 

 It is not usual to find such species associated on the face of a marine 

 precipice exposed to the storms of the Atlantic. 



Next to the Great Blasket, Innishvicillane is certainly the most 

 fertile in species. Some cultivation exists here, and one family 

 resides. Innishtooskert, though the largest of the group, except the 

 Great Blasket, is the most barren island, for its size, I have visited on 

 the west coast. It is uninhabited, and closely cropped by sheep. 

 On the uninhabited island of Innishnabro I gathered Lavatera arlorea, 

 one or two conspicuous specimens growing on the cliff near the 

 landing place. On the Tearaght Lavatera also grows. I noticed 

 several plants growing on various parts of the rock. The fact of the 

 lighthouse being on the Tearaght leaves room to question the 

 nativity of Lavatera here. It may have been introduced by the 

 keepers at one time. The occurrence of this species in suspicious 

 localities along our coasts induces me to prefix a mark of doubt. If, 

 however, Lavatera is anywhere indigenous in Ireland, it is probably 

 on the Blaskets. 



The late Mr. W. Andrews, in his numerous Papers in the Dublin 

 I^atural History Society's Proceedings, which refer principally to 

 zoology, here and there notices some plants which occur on the 

 Blasket Islands, viz., " a very fine species" of Saxifraga geum, " re- 

 markable in having a series of glands of a rich rose-colour surrounding 

 the base of the ovary, which give a remarkable appearance to its 

 inflorescence." This form, Mr. Andrews states, he found at the 

 extreme western point of the Great Blasket.^ 



I did not meet with any form of Saxifraga geum on the Blaskets, 



^ See illustration in Mr. Andrews' " On the Sea Fisheries of Ireland." 

 2 Proceedings, Dvh. Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. vi., part i., p. 85. 



