Ixxvi INTEODUCTION 



38. Down. 



North-eastern. Area 957 square miles. Maritime ; coast-line 

 generally low, rocky or sandy, broken up by the large land- 

 locked, island-studded lough of Strangford, and by the deep 

 indentations of Belfast • Lough and Carlingford Lough on the 

 northern and southern frontiers respectively. The surface is, in 

 general, undulating and fertile, with many small lakes and marshes 

 lying between hillocks so steep and rounded that the appearance 

 of the county has been likened to that of a basket of eggs. 

 Silurian grits, often covered by a thick bed of Boulder-clay, pre- 

 vail over the major part of this division, but in the centre and in 

 the south two great protrusions of granite rise into high ranges 

 of hills ; the central one is Slieve Croob (1755 feet), the southern 

 one the Mourne Mountains (Slieve Donard, 2796 feet, and many 

 summits over 2000 feet). On the northern slope of the latter range 

 the Bann has its source. Limestone is practically absent, and the 

 small areas of Eocene basalt. New Bed Sandstone, &c., have no 

 appreciable effect on the flora. The only considerable river is the 

 Lagan, which flows along the NW. margin. Several bogs existed 

 in the NE., but are now almost entirely cut away. A fertile county, 

 43 per cent, of the surface being under grass, and 41-}- per cent, 

 under crops. Barren mountain land occupies 7 per cent. Thoroughly 

 explored, chiefly by the industry of Mr. Stewart. 



Flora 742 species — a high total, when the total absence of lime- 

 stone tracts is taken into account. Hieracium senescens and Zanni- 

 chellia pohjcavjxi are unknown elsewhere in Ireland, and Hottonia 

 palustris is, as a possible native, confined to Down. 



Eare plants : — 



Barbarea intermedia, 5. Hieracium flocculosum, 2. 



Cardaaiine amara, 6. Hieracium argenteum, 4. 



Elatine Hydropiper, 2. Hieracium aui'atum, 4. 



Poterium officinale, 4. tHottonia palustris, 1. 



Hosa hibemica, 3. Linaria repens, 5. 



Eosa glauca, 4. Atriplex farinosa, 5. 



Ligusticum scoticum, 5. SciUa vema, 6. 



t Galium Cruciata, 2. Zannichellia polycarpa, 1. 



Hieracium senescens, 1. Cryptogramme crispa, 6. 



