Wild Connemara. By l)r Charles Stuart. 21 3 



In returning, I again came on numerous plants of the 

 Mediterranean Heath growing in the broken up fragments of 

 the bed of a stream. These were small compact plants, easily 

 taken up and with plenty of roots, and very suitable for planting. 

 After getting plenty of the heath, we walked slowly along but 

 got far too much east, missing the track to Eoundstone. A 

 friendly native, Bartley King by name, came to the rescue and 

 guided us down to the inn, where we got lunch, which we were 

 much in need of. In coming down from Urrisbeg, Mr King 

 asked if we had got £rioa Mackayana ? Upon answering in the 

 negative, he stated that we must in coming to Eoundstone have 

 passed quite closely the station for it. He undertook at once to 

 go and bring specimens to us at the junction of the Eoundstone 

 road, where it branches oif to Cashel Bay, which we would pass 

 about 6 p.m. I doubted his ability to do so in the time, but 

 after giving him some refreshment he started off over the moors 

 and kept his promise. I may state here that on our return from 

 Urrisbeg, our invalids had made great progress, and about five 

 o'clock we started in four cars for Cashel Bay. At the junction 

 of the roads Mr King met us with plenty of ^rica Mackayana, a 

 most beautiful form of Erica tetralix. In its ovate ciliated leaves 

 it resembles E. ciliaris, while in its mode of flowering and awned 

 anthers it resembles E. tetralix ; and in its more shrubby habit 

 and in the disposition of its branches, which, instead of having 

 the flowering ramuli generally springing from one point, are 

 irregularly disposed and much crowded towards the top of the 

 main branches. If not a true species, it is at least a fine 

 variety. 



After a prolonged consultation and examination of the plants, 

 and not forgetting our friend, we drove on about six miles 

 further to Cashel Bay Hotel, where we were received with Irish 

 effusion by Mr O'Loughlan, the proprietor. He had a fine 

 dinner prepared for us, and we felt afterwards quite at home in 

 his comfortable house. The hotel is a new plain structure 

 situated at the head of Cashel Bay, the sea being studded with 

 islands and rocks and surrounded with heath clad heights. A 

 twenty-five ton yacht rides in the bay, which is available for 

 visitors who wish to shoot wild fowl or fish for a variety of the 

 finny tribe. In the mornings the yacht was used to bathe from. 

 Behind the house Cashel mountain rears its green head. As far 

 as the eye can reach extend heathery moors and bogs, affording^ 



