lxii INTRODUCTION. 
water area of all the Kerry divisions ; fully four-fifths of the 
5,000 acres included in the Lower Killarney Lake fall within 
its boundary, as well as the whole of the Muckross Lake, the 
Long Range, with the greater portion of the Upper Lake and 
Lough Guitane. Numerous smaller lakes, about fifty in 
number, bring up its total area of fresh water to nearly 6,000 
acres. Several of these small lakes lie at great elevations, the 
well known Devil’s Punch Bowl on Mangerton being 2,206 feet 
above sea level, while Triangle Lake to the south-west of this 
is 1,959 feet, and the Devil’s Ink Pot (Lough Erhagh) in the 
Horse’s Glen is 1,414 feet in elevation. 
Though entirely inland, maritime influence no doubt 
originating in a remote past, is clearly traceable in this district 
in the occurrence of such plants as Silene maritima and Armeria 
maritima, both of which grow quite plentifully at low-level 
in two or three spots on the shores of the Killarney Lakes asso- 
ciated with Cerastium semidecandrum and C. tetrandrum, 
plants elsewhere in Ireland almost exclusively maritime. 
The only considerable centre of population in the barony is 
Killarney, the second largest town in Kerry, with about 5,800 
inhabitants. Judged by the Kerry standard, railways are 
numerous and important, the total mileage within the barony 
being fully 40 miles. Several plants appear to have entered 
this division by the railway tracks, among them Diplotazis 
muralis, Senecio radiatus so abundant about the railway, &c., 
in Cork city, and Linaria minor, a well known lover of such 
situations throughout Irleand. A quite recent arrival along 
this route is Matricaria discoidea which has only recently 
(1915) been noticed about the goods-yard at Killarney station. 
It is interesting to note that Senecio squalidus, which is even 
more abundant about Cork than S. radiatus, has not, so far, 
made its appearance within the Kerry borders. 
Notwithstanding the purely inland situation of this barony, 
its flora is a very rich one, the richest indeed of the nine Kerry 
divisions. All the groups, except of course the maritime, are 
strongly represented. Out of 50 well marked members of the 
Calcicole group present in Kerry, only seven, Arabis hirsuta, 
Hypericum perforatum, Ononis repens, Trifolium striatum, 
Asperula cynanchica, Chlora perfoliata and Spiranthes 
autumnalis appear to be absent, and nearly all of these plants, 
it should be noted, have in this county a marked tendency to 
occupy coastal stations. Of the 97 species in the Calcifuge 
group present in Kerry, only one, Hriocaulon septangulare, is 
wanting in this barony. 
It is pre-eminent also for the number of its peculiar species, 
