INTRODUCTION. 
I. History or tar Frora. 
THE present day visitor to Kerry can form but little idea of 
the difficulties attending a tour in the more remote portions 
of that county even in comparatively recent times. Two 
hundred years ago these difficulties were incomparably greater, 
for the wandering botanist had not only to explore large tracts 
almost devoid of both roads and inns but had also to risk 
the unkind attentions of the dispossessed natives of that time, 
the “ Tories ’” as they were called, who appear to have been 
especially obstructive in this county. Thus Edward 
Lhwyd, one of the earliest of these botanical pilgrims, 
describing a visit he made to Ireland in 1699, after referring 
to several rare plants he found “‘ on the mountains of Keri,” 
complains bitterly that “the Tories frustrated our curiosity 
here though nowhere else in the Kingdom.” Nowadays with 
comfortable hotels nearly everywhere, and railways penetrating 
to its farthest limits, the botanist may explore this delightful 
county with no greater hardships than those occasioned by 
uncertain weather. 
When investigating the early history of a county flora, it is 
sometimes difficult to understand the principle on which 
certain plants have been selected for earliest records. Thus 
the lowly Scilla verna occupies this place of honour in the 
Dublin flora * and Cochlearia danica in the Plymouth flora. 
So far as Kerry, however, is concerned, the earliest known 
‘reference to its vegetation includes two conspicuous and 
interesting members of its flora—namely, the Arbutus and the 
Oak. These references are to be found in an MS. inquisition 
of the estates of Rory O’Donohue, made in or about 1584. A 
translation of this report is given inVol. XXXVI., p. 433, of the 
Royal Soc. of Antiquaries (Dec. 1906), where it is stated that 
‘a great part of these [Killarney] woods consists of Oak trees 
great and small, but there are other woods and underwoods 
in the island of Loughleane and elsewhere in the islands, where 
grow certain trees called Crankany, &c.,” this latter word 
* Vide Mr. Colgan’s Flora of Dullin, p. xix. 
} Vide Mr. Briggs’ Flora of Plymouth, p. xxvii. 
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