INTRODUCTION. xi 
ring in the county ; he also here gives us the first definite 
published locality for the Arbutus “it grows in the Co. of 
Kerry on the borders of Loghlen,”? Lough Leane or the Lower 
Lake of Killarney. 
Nothing more appears to have been recorded until 1756, 
when Dr. CHARLES SMITH published “ The Antient and Present 
State of the County of Kerry.” Very little information is 
now available regarding Dr. Smith. He appears to have been 
born in the south of Ireland early in the 18th century, to have 
taken his M.D. degree in Dublin in 1738, and to have 
“ flourished ’’ between 1744 and 1774. He wrote County 
Histories of Waterford, 1746, Cork, 1750, and Kerry, 1756 ; 
all three works passed through two editions, and each 
contains a chapter on the plants growing in the county. The 
History of Kerry is an octavo volume of 424 pages, with a 
map and plates, published in Dublin “ with the approbation 
of the Physico-Historical Society,” a society founded in Dublin 
in 1744 to promote enquiries into the “ Antient and Present 
State of the several Counties of Ireland.’ It is impossible to 
determine now whether Dr. Smith relied on his own botanical 
investigations or accepted the statements of others, but even 
allowing for the somewhat numerous errors into which he 
appears to have fallen, his work forms by far the most impor- 
tant contribution to early Kerry botany. In his Chap. XIV., 
“* Of the rare and useful plants growing in Kerry,” is found a 
list of 104 pre-Linnean formule which includes 97 Phanerogams 
and higher Cryptogams, with 2 Mosses and 3 Lichens, and 
duplicate descriptions or varieties of two of the Ferns. Of 
these 97 species, 20 may be-regarded as almost certainly set 
down in error, another 15 have not been seen in the county 
since his time save as obvious escapes, while 4 more had been 
previously recorded. To make up for these deductions, 20 
additional plants are elsewhere referred to in the text, giving 
Dr. Smith a total of 78 first records for plants which, with one 
exception, are still to be found in the county. As might be 
expected, the great majority of these records, 49 or 50 in num- 
ber, are for plants as common in Kerry as elsewhere in Ireland ; 
the others, however, include such interesting or rare Kerry 
species as the following, Crambe maritima, Hrodiwm moschatum, 
Rhamnus catharticus, Alchemilla vulgaris, Sambucus Ebulus, 
Rubia peregrina, Inula Helenium, I. crithmoides, Anthemis 
nobilis, Crepis paludosa, Statice rariflora, Pinguicula grandiflora, 
Mentha Pulegium, Atriplex portulacoides, Ewphorbia hiberna, 
Juniperus communis, Taxus baccata, Asplenium viride, 
Cystopteris fragilis, Osmunda regalis, Ophioglossum vulgatum, 
