I20 
The Irish Naturalist, 
May, 
There were pine trees, however, in the great Leinster forest, in loio a.d., 
which were carried to Kincora on the Shannon to make masts for the 
ships of King Brian. Firs grew, according to a note on an old map, 
on the mountains of Down in 1570. The association of the pine with the 
Capercaillie in Ireland was striking.as this beautiful bird gradually became 
extinct with the increasing rarity of the pine woods. Ireland always had 
plains on which trees never grew, like the Curragh of Kildare, Lecale in 
Down, and the great plain of Roscommon. During the Bronze Age man 
began to clear the forests for the cultivation of cereals and flax, and the 
agricultural area increased in succeeding centuries. Half the island 
was probably covered with forest at the time of the Norman Conquest. 
The woods were remorselessly cut in the seventeenth century, as timber 
was the main source of profit to the adventurer, who exported oak staves 
abroad, and established ironworks all over the country, and who con- 
sumed for charcoal all the smaller trees. Remnants of the old woods 
still existed in many parts, and are characterised by a peculiar flora 
and fauna, which is non-existent in plantations on wooded ground. 
Professor Henry gave a list of these plants, and alluded to the lingering 
of two species of Pyrola in a few spots as indications of former pine woods. 
These little plants were dying out, and would become extinct like the 
Capercaillie. One slug and six kinds of snail were localised in old woods. 
Professor Henry gave many instances of remarkable woods in Ireland, 
as the oak and holly woods of Castlewellan, out of which ^500 of holly 
timber was sold in one year. A remarkable oak wood at Glasslough, 
in Monaghan, in 1801, was reported to be the finest in Europe at that 
day, being worth 1,000 an acre. Crab trees of great age were common 
a century ago along the shores of Lough Neagh, and the largest oak that 
was ever known in Ireland was felled at Portmore about 1750. The most 
celebrated tree in Ireland is, however, fortunately still alive. This is the 
famous Yew in the grounds of Crom Castle, in the townland of Crom, 
in Fermanagh. This tree is remarkable for its enormous spread of 
foliage, over 200 people being able to sit down to a banquet under its 
shade. The lecturer had discovered an early reference to this tree in 
O'Clery's " Contention of the Bards," 1620, where the Yew of Crom is 
said to have.been discovered on the day when Conn of the Hundred Fights 
was born. This tree has probably an antiquity of over 1,500 years, and 
may have been associated with the worship of the pagan idol Crom Cruach . 
A discussion ensued, in which J. M. Dickson, Rev. J. Shiels, S. A^ 
Bennett, A. McI. Cleland, and R. Welch took part. 
March 17. — The President (Rev. Canon Lett), in the chair. N. H, 
Foster read a paper on "How to Recognize our common Woodlice," 
in which the specific characters of the British species were pointed out 
with the aid of lantern slides. R. Welch followed with a paper entitled 
" The History of the Rosapenna Sand-dunes," in which the origin and 
character of these blown sands and of their fauna and flora were discussed. 
The papers were discussed by A. M'l. Cleland, Miss E. Andrews, and 
W. J. C. Tomlinson. 
