104 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



In Mr.F. J. Foot's very interesting paper* " On the Distribution 

 of Plants in the Burren District," he describes part of this district 

 as consisting of bare rocky hills, which seem at first sight quite devoid 

 of vegetation, and the desert- like aspect thus imparted to the landscape 

 has caused it to be compared to parts of Arabia Petraea. The rock is 

 traversed by different systems of joints, which form innumerable fissures 

 in the flat beds, and on a close inspection it is found that all the chinks 

 and crevices, caused by these joints and the action of rain, are the nur- 

 series of very many plants, the disintegration of the rock producing a 

 very rich productive soil. Almost the very same words might be used 

 in reference to the Arran Islands, the general aspect of these islands 

 presenting a very strong contrast indeed with the boulder-strewn 

 surface of the Connemara district, with its innumerable small loughs 

 and deep pools. Some sufficiently remarkable plants are found in both 

 the Connemara district and on the Islands of Arran — such as Gen- 

 tiana verna, Allium babingtonii, Adiantum capillus-venoris, &c. ; but 

 nearly all that might be thus cited are equally found on the islands 

 and on the opposite Clare coast ; and we have at least the following, 

 which, not found in District 8, are equally common or rare on the 

 Burren and the Arran coasts :—Helianthemum canum, Ajuga pyramidalis ; 

 and again many plants met with in the Connemara district, are not 

 found either in Clare or Arran. 



The season was not too far advanced for leguminous plants, and I 

 could not but be struck by their absence. I did not meet with a single 

 plant of TJlex Europceus or Ononis arvensis ; and in Mr. Foot's list of 

 Burren plants I find only two of the Leguminosse recorded — Lotus cor- 

 niculatus and L. major. Two common trefoils and the common tufted 

 vetch were all that rewarded my search at Arran. 



On the west and most exposed side of Inishmore many plants com- 

 monly met with were remarkable for their peculiar stunted growth : 

 thus the Samphire ( Crithmum maritimum), which grows in the greatest 

 abundance, was found in full flower, and yet the little miniature plants 

 were not more than three inches in height. Plants of Sedum rhodiola 

 were also met with not more than 1\ inches high. Such plants were 

 invariably found growing out from the chinks between the stones. 



A dwarfed condition of growth was not, however, by any means the 

 rule; for not to allude to the gigantic flowering stems of Allium babingtonii, 

 which, under favourable circumstances, reach to a height of from five to 

 six feet, nor to the fronds of Adiantum capillus-veneris, some of which 

 I have found twenty inches long, specimens of Verbascum thapsus were 

 met with nearly five feet high, and covered with the richest pubescence, 

 and in at least one instance a small colony of that fine thistle, Silybum 

 marianum, was seen, some of the flowering stalks of which were five 

 feet four inches in height. 



"Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy," vol. xxiv. Science, Part III. , 

 Dublin, 1864, p. 143, et seq. 



