372 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



gether 174 species, according to the London Catalogue of British Plants, 

 7th edition, were gathered, and specimens of most of thera dried for 

 examination. This includes Spergularia rupestris, a very common 

 coast species, which I gathered only on the Skelligs, and which was 

 probably overlooked on the Blaskets. Of the 174 species, 162 were 

 noticed on the Great Blasket. The other islands were examined only 

 with a view to detect species not noticed on the largest island, and 

 the list of species for each is incomplete. Innishtooskert is so barren 

 that it is seldom referred to in my list, and I have not indicated it by 

 a separate letter, as in the case of the other islands. 



Five distinct groups of islands have now been examined on the 

 west coast of Ireland. Professor E. P. "Wright, in 1866, and !Mr. 

 H. C. Hart in 1869,® visited the Arran Islands, in Gal way Bay.^ 

 Mr. A. G. llore, in 1875, visited with me Bofin Island, county IMayo.* 

 Tory Island, county Donegal, was visited in 1877 by myself;^ and 

 Mr. H. C. Hart, in 1879, visited Aran Island, county Donegal.^" 



"We may now add the Blasket Islands to the number ; and as these 

 local lists ai'e valuable, not only for the sake of comparison with the 

 portions of the mainland respectively opposite each island, but also 

 with each other, I have thought it desirable now that we have five 

 groups to compare for the first time, to draw out in a tabular form 

 a list of species which shows at a glance all the plants which have 

 been recorded from the five groups, as well as the islands on which 

 they occur, and from which they are absent. 



The areas of the five groups, with the number of species recorded 

 from (and compared with each other) peculiar species, are : — 



Arran Islands, Gal-way 

 Aran Island, Donegal, 

 Innisi.'bofin, . 

 The Blasket Islands, 

 Tory Island, . 



Acres. 



Total 

 species. 



Peculiar 

 species. 



10781 



372 



130 



4355 



232 



23 



2312 



303 



36 



1560 



174 



8 



785 



145 



1 



6 "Notes on the Flora of the Islands of Arran," Proceedings, Duh. Nat. Sist, 

 Soc, vol. V. p. 96. 



' A List of Plants found on the Islands of Arran, Galway Bay. Hodges, 

 Foster, & Co. DubUn. 1875. Ax^d. Journal of Botany, 1%'b, -p. \l\. 



8 Proceedings, Poyal Irish Academy, 2nd series, vol. ii. (Science) p. 553 ; and 

 Journal of Botany, 1876, p. 373. 



9 Journal of Botany, toI. viii. (new series) p. 263, September, 1879. 

 ^° Journal of Botany, vol. x. (new series) p. 19, January, I88I4 



