Ivi INTRODUCTION 



low limestone country extends without interruption. In the east, 

 along the Shannon, it is varied by enormous bogs and occasional 

 eskers, and is well wooded in places. As we go westward, woods 

 and bogs grow scarce, and the brown soil gives place more and more 

 to bare weather-worn limestone, till near the sea-board grey stone 

 walls enclose fields of grey rock, hopeless to the agriculturist, but 

 fascinating to the botanist. The area under grass is high — 61 per 

 cent. : and that under crops low — 18 per cent. ; turf bog and 

 mountain land are each represented by about 7 per cent. Many 

 botanists have visited this division on account of the great interest 

 attaching to two localities — the neighbourhood of Woodford and 

 Lough Derg in the south-east, and of the " limestone crag " country 

 of Castle Taylor and Gort in the south-west. The rest of the 

 division is still imperfectly known. 



Flora 662 species, including many rare plants, belonging chiefly 

 to the Shannon Lakes group or to the Burren group : — 



Viola stagnina, 4. Euphrasia Salisburgensis, 6. 



Spiraea Filipendula, 2. Teucrium Scordium, 7. 



Galium sylvestre, 6. Euphorbia hiberna, 11. 



Asperula cynanchica, 8. Epipactis atro-rubens, 4. 



Inula salicina, 2. Habenaria intacta, 5. 



Ligustrum vulgare, 3. tSisyrinchium angustifolium, 5. 



Gentiana verna, 5. Chara tomentosa, 5. 



Limosella aquatica, 2. 



16. Galway W. 



Western. Area 826 square miles, including Inishbofin, excluding 

 Aran. Maritime, facing the Atlantic with a tangled coast-line of 

 great extent along the west and south, formed of a maze of inlets 

 and islets. The eastern boundary is formed by the great lakes of 

 Mask and Corrib, so that the division is almost surrounded by 

 water. This is an area of rugged metamorphic and igneous rocks 

 of great age, rising into beautiful mountain groups in Maam Turk 

 and the Twelve Bens, both of which lie towards the centre, and 

 show a number of rocky summits of over 2000 feet. Elsewhere 

 the ground is undulating, sometimes low, sometimes mountainous, 

 but almost everywhere having a surface of bog, rock, or lake. 



