THE SUBDIVISION OF lEELAND lix 



drainage is mainly towards tlie bog-fringed Shannon, which forms 

 the western boundary for five-and-twenty miles ; in the east the 

 Boyne has its source, and the upper waters of the Barrow skirt the 

 county. A few lakelets, mostly boggy, are the only standing water. 

 The Grand Canal passes east and west right across the division. 

 Some of the finest esker-ridges in Ireland are situated in the centre 

 and west. No less than 95 per cent, of the area is below 500 feet 

 elevation. Grass land covers half the total surface, and crops 22 

 per cent. The area of low-level bog is as high as 19 per cent. 

 Flora tolerably well known ; but though no large tract is unexplored, 

 no portion of the county can be yet said to be thoroughly worked out. 

 Flora 654 species, of the character typical of the Central Plain. 

 Very few rare plants occur : — 



Vicia Orobus, 4. Campanula Trachelium, 4. 



19. Kildare. 



East-central. Area 654 square miles- The most level county in 

 Ireland. The north and west is typical Central Plain country — 

 fiat limestone covered by bog, marsh, wood, pasture and tillage, 

 with a large proportion of the two first. In the south and east the 

 ground is more undulating. Along the eastern margin the under- 

 lying Silurian slates appear, and form eminences of 800 to 1000 

 feet, the foot-hills of the Wicklow mountains. Post- Carboniferous 

 movements have produced a series of Silurian knolls (Hill of Allen, 

 676 feet) north of the town of Kildare, insignificant were it not 

 by contrast with the enormous plain on which they look down. 

 All the east of the county is drained by the Liffey, here a clear and 

 rippling stream. The larger and more sluggish Barrow runs along 

 the western edge. There is not a lake in the county, but hydro- 

 phytes find a home in the Grand Canal, which traverses the division, 

 and the Pioyal Canal, which fringes it on the north. Gravel is 

 locally abundant, the breezy Curragh being the largest mass of gravel 

 in Ireland. Grass land 62 per cent., bogs 7*5 per cent. — both above 

 the average. Crops about normal — 24 per cent. Exploration, 

 chiefly along the Barrow and in the north-east. Much further 

 work is required ; a large area in the north is still almost untouched. 



