Hart — Flora of the Mountains of Mayo and Galioay. 695 



A few general features may first be noticed. Cultivation is rarely 

 seen on the mountains at any considerable elevation. The liighest 

 seen was on the south-eastern slopes of Birreencorragh, north of 

 JiS'ewport, at 400 feet. Cultivated fields, grain, or tillage, scarcely 

 extend above 200 feet in the neighbourhood of the higher mountains. 

 Eye is a favourite crop in the west of Mayo. Potatoes depend mainly 

 on a dry season during the first part of July : upon this the pea- 

 santry stake the success of their crop. There is little flax grown 

 compared with Donegal, and wheat is rarely seen. The climate is 

 milder than that of the east side of Ireland, and very much wetter. 

 It is my belief that, if reliable records were taken, the neigh- 

 bourhood of Delphi, at the base of Mweelrea and the upper part 

 of Killary Fiord, would stand somewhere about the top of the list of 

 rainfalls in the kingdom. In consequence of this mildness, especially 

 in winter, and " the shelter from the severity of easterly winds, the 

 mountainous parts of the west have a far richer flora than those on 

 the eastern side. On the other hand, several ranges in Galway are 

 unusually barren from their geological nature. The absence of '• moun- 

 tain limestone " is prejudicial ; and the prevalence of quartzite banishes 

 many plants from large areas. On this rock, and the scanty soil it 

 furnishes, only a few plants care to live. Of the mountain species, 

 which sometimes appear quite at home on quartzite, the following 

 may be mentioned : — 



Silene maritima. 

 Saxifraga umbrosa. 

 S. stellaris. 

 Antennaria dioica. 

 Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. 

 Empetrum nigrum. 



Armeria maritima. 

 Salix herbacea. 

 Juniperus nana. 

 Carex rigida. 

 Lycopodium selago. 

 L. alpinum 



The other alpine species must be sought for off the quartzite, and 

 where this rock is flanked by schists, &c., the line of demarcation of the 

 alpine plants is, where they occur, rigorously defined. 



JS'one of the above are confined to the quartzite ; they grow as freely 

 on sandstone, granite, or other siliceous rocks, and some of them on all 

 sorts of rock ; but they may be regarded as almost its only alpine or 

 sub- alpine inhabitants. As a rule, these mountains present wide sur- 

 faces devoid of all vegetation, the different species of heather appear- 

 ing only in patches. 



Under Croaghpatrick and The Twelve Eens will be found de- 

 scribed my most interesting discoveries ; a separate list of these will 

 presently be given. New localities were found for all the alpine 

 species recorded from the mountains of Mayo and Galway (District 8 

 of the " Cybele Hibernica"), and several more were added to the list. 

 These plants descend to an unexpectedly low level, especially in Gal- 

 way. There is little use in comparing these two counties, since the 



IM.A. rHOC, SEE. ir. VOL. III. — SCIEXCE. 3 T 



