Quercus. | CUPULIFERA. 259 
From sea-level, to 1,125 feet on rocks near the summit 
of the old Kenmare-Glengarriff road (R.W.8.). 
The earliest available notice of the Oak as occurring in 
the county is found in an MS. inquisition of the estates of 
Rory O’Donohoe, made in or about 1584, a translation of 
which is given in Vol. XXXVL., p. 433, of the Journ. of the 
Roy. Soc. of Antiquaries (Dec. 1906). Referring to the 
Killarney woods, it states that ‘‘ a great part of these woods 
consists of oak trees, great and small.” It is curious that 
‘Dr. Smith in his History of Kerry, 1756, makes no reference 
to the Oak in that work although he often alludes to other 
timber trees both native and foreign. The earliest printed 
record, indeed, does not occur apparently until fully fifty 
years later, when Mr. Isaac Weld in his Illustrations of the 
Scenery of Killarney published in 1806, makes constant 
reference to the Oak trees growing about the Lakes and in 
several places alludes to the ruthless destruction of these 
trees then going on. 
All three forms of the British Oak occur in Kerry. About 
Killarney, Q. sessiliflora Salisb. appears to be the prevailing 
form. Out of 95 trees examined in the woods of Ross 
Island, Muckross demesne, and about the Upper Lake, 74 
proved to be Q. sessiliflora while only 3 were Q. Robur, the 
remaining 18 being their hybrid. An old Oak wood in 
Barry’s Glen between Killarney and Farranfore proved, on 
the other hand, to be composed mainly of Q. Robur. 
Like other timber trees, the Oak has been much planted in 
the county and it is now difficult to distinguish the native 
from the introduced growth. It appears, however, to be 
truly native in several localities about Killarney and is 
certainly so in some of the old woods in the remoter glens 
and valleys in several parts of the county. The frequency 
in Kerry of place-names with the prefix or affix derry an 
oak wood, point to the tree having formerly been much more 
plentiful in the county than it is at present. Joyce in his 
Irish Names of Places gives Darrery, or a place abounding 
in Oaks, as the Irish name for Valencia Island, where, outside 
the demesne at Glanleam, the Oak as a native tree has 
now almost ceased to exist. Names such as Derrymore, 
Derrysallagh, Derrycunnihy, Darrynane, Kilderry, Derry- 
nasaggert, Derreen, &c., are only a few examples of places 
which may be found scattered all over the county from 
north to south. 
Many fine trees occur about Killarney, especially in the 
Home and Deer Parks, as well as in the grounds of Flesk 
