Erica.) ERICACEA. 185 
From sea-level, to 2,500 feet on Brandon and on the Reeks 
(Hart), and to 2,600 feet on the Purple Mountain, but very 
stunted there (R.W.S.). 
First record in 1836: Mackay, Flor. Hib. 
This grows to large dimensions in Kerry, plants five feet 
or more in height having been noted. On the mountains 
this species frequently simulates H. Tetralix in its manner 
of flowering, the racemes being shortened into a compact 
little head ; on the lowlands they are often two to three 
inches in length. Plants with pure white flowers are not 
uncommon. 
(DaBa@cta pPotiFotia D. Don.  Boretta cantabrica 
O. Kuntze. Menziesia polifolia Juss. St. Dabeoc’s Heath. 
“This is a common plant on the mountains, and observed 
by Mr. Ray to grow also in Air Connaught county of Mayo. 
Dr. Plot in his history of Staffordshire, p. 379, says that the 
country people have long used it instead of hops, and that 
it communicates no ungrateful flavour to their beer” (Dr. 
Smith) Hist. of Kerry, 1756, p. 375, No. 31. This conspicuous 
Heath occurs neither in Kerry nor in Staffordshire, being 
confined in the British Isles to Galway and Mayo. No 
doubt Dr. Smith had some other plant in his mind, possibly 
Empetrum nigrum, which grows in all the counties he 
mentions. | 
PYROLA Linn. 
P. minor Linn. Winter-green. 
District — — — IV — ~—- ~~ ~~ — 
Native. Rocky wood. Very rare and local. Peren. June— 
July. \ 
IV. Sparingly in a rocky wood near the Caraghbeg River, 
Glencar valley, 1907 (Dr. Wood & R.W.S.) R.W.S. 1908. 
First record in 1908: Irish Nat., p. 53. 
The discovery of Pyrola minor in Kerry gives a wide ex- 
tension to the known range of thisrare plant in Ireland. It 
occurred in a dense rocky wood, thickly carpeted, by the 
middle of July, with an undergrowth of ferns and other 
shade-loving plants and had it not been for a solitary 
flowering spike protruding through this tangle of vegetation, 
the Pyrola would certainly have remained unnoticed. A 
close search revealed four or five plants only, two of which 
were flowering. The neighbourhood, however, furnishes 
