xii INTRODUCTION. 
Equisetum hyemale and Lycopodium clavatum. Another of 
Dr. Smith’s Kerry plants, Lathyrus maritimus, appears to have 
retained its position for about a hundred years in the station 
he recorded, the only one in Ireland, and to have died out there 
subsequently. Amongst the fifteen species which have not 
been seen in Kerry since Dr. Smith recorded them, the following 
may be mentioned, Mathola sinuata, Lepidium latifolium, 
Erodium maritimum, Diotis maritima, Andromeda Polifolia, 
Mertensia maritima and Pinus sylvestris. Five of these, it will 
be observed, are maritime species, and it is quite possible that 
they may have shared the fate of Lathyrus maritimus,of the 
occurrence of which in Dr. Smith’s original locality there 
appears to be no reasonable doubt. 
Two common plants, Hedera Helix and Urtica dioica, 
appear as first records in Arthur Young’s “ Tour in Ireland,” 
a work published in London in 1780, but with this 
exception there is a lull in botanical activity in Kerry for 
48 years, and the 18th century closes with the meagre total of 
88 species on record for this extensive county. 
Early in the following century Dr. WALTER WADE 
(b. circa 1760—d. 1825), published his ‘“‘ Plante rariores in 
Hibernia invente,” which appeared in the Trans. of the Roy. 
Dub. Soc. in 1804. Excluding several undoubted errors, this 
work adds 20 species to the Kerry flora, amongst the more 
interesting being—Thalictrum minus, Vicia sylvatica, Rubus 
saxatilis, Sedum Rhodiola, Lobelia Dortmanna, Stachys Betonica, 
Salix herbacea, Empetrum mgrum, Epipactis latifolia, Carex 
curta and Hymenophyllum tunbridgense ; all these plants still 
occur more or less plentifully in Dr. Wade’s stations. 
Two years later, the name of JAMES TOWNSEND MACKAY 
(b. 1775 2—d. 1862), the designer and Curator of the Trinity 
College Botanic Garden, Ball’s Bridge, Dublin, first appears 
in connection with Kerry botany. His “‘ Systematic Catalogue 
of Rare Plants found in Ireland’ was published in the Trans. 
of the Dub. Soc. in 1806, and adds 44 species to those already 
known to occur in the county. As will be seen from the 
following selection, they include many of the most interesting 
plants in the Kerry flora—Draba incana, Subularia aquatica, 
Lavatera arborea, Saxifraga Geum, S. cespitosa, Drosera angica, 
Carum verticillatum, Pimpinella magna, Galium  sylvestre, 
Asperula cynanchica, Verbascum virgatum (as V. pulverulentum), 
Sibthorpia europea, Bartsia viscosa, Orobanche Hedera: (as O. 
minor), Oxyria digyna, Malaxis paludosa, Rynchospora fusca, 
Carex Hudsoniit, Poa alpina, Trichomanes radicans, Lastrea 
Thelypteris and L. Oreopteris. Most of these plants are still 
