286 LILIACE. [Stmethis. 
LILIACEZ. 
SIMETHIS Kunth. 
8. bicolor Kunth. 8S. planifolia Gren. & Godr. Pubilaria 
bicolor Raf. 
District — I. — ~—~ —- ~—- ~—~ ~—~ — 
Native. On rocky ground, rough furzy heaths and in peat- 
filled fissures in rocks near the sea. Very rare, but rather 
frequent locally. Peren. May to early July. 
II. Hills near Darrynane Abbey, Kerry [on the Abbey 
Island] (Rev. I. O'Mahony) London Journ. of Bot. 1848, 
p. 571. On the mainland a little west of Darrynane (Dr. E. 
P. Wright) Cyb. 1866. In several places amongst stunted 
Furze, Heaths and Molinia, &c., on the west side of Abbey 
Island and in several places on the mainland to the west of 
this island as far as the headland opposite Kid’s Island, 
about a mile west of Darrynane ; in several places on the 
Darrynane side of Lamb’s Head ; in many places near the 
shore of Kenmare Bay for a distance of eight or nine miles 
east of Darrynane, extending inland for about a mile east 
of Caherdaniel: R.W.S. 1890, &c., and in 1901. 
Ascends to about 400 feet east of Caherdaniel (R.W.S.). 
First record in 1848: Rev. T'. O’ Mahony, London Journ. 
of Bot., p. 571. 
This is, perhaps, the most interesting member of that 
small group of plants whose range in Ireland does not extend 
beyond the borders of Kerry, a group which includes, as at 
present known, only three other species in the Irish flora— 
Sibthorpia europea, Polygonum sagittatum and Nitella con- 
fervacea. Although the Simethis is now known to occur 
over an area extending eight miles east and west by one to 
two miles north and south, it still remains one of the rarest 
and most local plants in Ireland. In Great Britain it is even 
more restricted in its range, being confined to one locality 
at Bournemouth, where it is now threatened with destruction 
owing to the spread of building operations. It is interesting 
to note that were it not for the existence of this precarious 
Dorsetshire station, the Simethis would be included with 
Arbutus Unedo, Pinguicula grandiflora, &c, amongst the 
Lusitanian group of plants peculiar in the British Isles to 
Ireland. On the Continent, the plant ranges over west Italy, 
Sardinia, Corsica and along the Mediterranean to northern 
Spain, south-west France and Normandy, attaining in Kerry 
its northern limit for Europe. 
