702 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Lastraea oreopteris (Presl.) — E.ather rare in the west. Letterbrick- 



aun valley and GlencrofP near the Killary. 

 Polystichmn lonchitis (Eoth.) — Muckanaght — only locality. 

 P. aciileatum (Roth.), Yar. lobatum — Muckanaght and Manmeen. 

 Cystopteris fragilis (iBernh.) — Loughty Mt. ; Muckanaght and Mau- 



meen. Very rare. 

 Asplenium viride (Huds.) — Muckanaght ; Croaghpatrick and Ben 



Lettery. Only recorded from the last locality before. 

 Adiantum capillus- veneris (Linn.) — Achill (and Salrock?). Yery 



rare, but recorded from one or two localities previously. 

 Lycopodium clavatum (Linn.) — On the mountain opposite Leenane 

 Hotel on the Killary. Appears to be very scarce, but I was not 

 much on the lower grassy hills which this species affects. 

 L. alpinum (Linn.) — Mweelrea ; Loughty Mt. ; Curraun Achill, and 

 Maam Turk. Recorded from the last locality and Ben Lettery, 

 where I did not observe it. 

 Before proceeding to my detailed account of the mountain ranges, 

 I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to Professor Babing- 

 ton of Cambridge, Mr. Baker of Kew, and Mr. More of Dublin, who 

 have kindly examined and given their opinion upon rarer and critical 

 species. 



In my survey of each mountain, I suppose the reader to start from 

 the summit and descend downwards in various directions. 



Nephin is an isolated, rounded lump of quartzite, rising to 2646 

 feet above sea level. It is second in height to Mweelrea in Mayo, 

 the highest in the west of Ireland, and situate north-west of Newport 

 on Clew Bay. The barren nature of the rock of which it is formed, 

 and the even shape of its surface, render it obviously uninteresting 

 botanically. Nevertheless it appears to be the only point in the west 

 which has received much attention from botanists, and these reasons, 

 combined with a steady downpour of rain, caused me to be satisfied 

 with a rather hurried survey. Dr. Dickie has given a slight account of 

 its plants in his *' Flora of IJlster." He records Carex rigida fi'om the 

 summit, 140 feet higher than I observed it, and three common species 

 which I noticed on the top do not appear in his list. There is, how- 

 ever, a stranger disagreement between us. Ardostaphylos uva-ursi is 

 very abundant south from the summit in the direction of Crampaun 

 Wood. It appears, as we descend, at about 1650 feet ; is very abun- 

 dant at 1500, and disappears at about 1240. jSTeither Dr. Dickie nor 

 Professor Babington observed this species, although both have recorded 

 Vaccinium vitis-idcea from Nephin, which I did not meet with. The 

 former does not, however, include it in the list of Nephin plants given 

 in his Introduction. Vaccinium vitis-idcea appeared to me extremely 

 rare in Mayo and Galway ; at least, on the higher mountains. Dr. 

 Dickie does not mention Antennaria dioica, Hieracium anglicmn, Salix 

 herlacea, Silene maritima, or Saxifraga stellaris, which I met with at 

 considerable heights. 



On the north-eastern side of the northern spur of Nephin, the rock 



