BOTANICAL FEATURES OF IRELAND xxv 



character. Thus, Saxifraga Hir cuius, Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, Listera 

 cordata, appear on bogs at low elevations. Selaginella selaginoides 

 is widely spread over the low grounds down to sea-level ; lowland 

 lakes or rivers yield Suhidaria aquatica, Lobelia Dortmanna, Carex 

 aquatilis, Isoetes lacustris ; and Galium boreale abounds on the 

 shores of the larger lakes. 



The East Coast. — The east of Ireland presents, as might be 

 expected from its proximity to Great Britain, a flora which more 

 nearly approaches in character the vegetation of the neighbouring 

 part of the adjoining island. Climate and soil no doubt contri- 

 bute to produce this character. The climate is drier, colder in 

 winter, warmer in summer, and the soils lighter, than in the west 

 of Ireland. The east coast flora differs in a broad sense from that 

 of the west coast (1) in the absence of the characteristic plants of 

 the west coast — i.e. the Cantabrian group, the American group, 

 and the low-level alpines ; and (2) in the presence of a number of 

 plants of light soils, many of which are in the British Isles 

 characteristically English. These light-soil plants have their Irish 

 head-quarters in the south-east, and most of them reach their 

 northern limit in Dublin or Louth. County Dublin forms another 

 focus of this section of the flora. In the north-east this element 

 hardly exists, and we find instead certain plants which have a 

 more or less northern range in Great Britain. The table on next 

 page shows the distribution along the east coast of some of its 

 characteristic plants. It may be noted that except in Dublin and 

 Meath, hmestone is almost absent from the eastern sea-board. 



The flora of Ireland is especially characterised by the east and 

 west contrast of its elements. A comparison between the plants of 

 north and south exhibits no such striking differences. If we examine 

 the list of "Southern Plants" — i.e. plants not found north of lat. 

 52i° — given in "Cybele" (p. Iv), it will be found to consist of rather 

 heterogeneous elements — Cantabrian plants from the south-west, 

 east coast plants which do not range north of Wexford, and critical 

 plants the distribution of which has not yet been worked out. The 

 " Northern Plants " list of " Cybele " (p. Ivi) is more homogeneous, 

 and is composed mainly of plants of north-east Ireland, which in 

 Great Britain have a more or less northern distribution. 



