The Irish Naturalist. 



September, 



NOTES ON THE BOTANY OF CENTRAL CLARE. 



BY R. LLOYD PRAKGBR. 



The County of Clare, with a flora surpassed in numbers only 

 by a few of the rich eastern counties adjoining Dublin and 

 Belfast, is to be looked on as one of the best worked, as well 

 as one of the most interesting, areas in Ireland. Little of a 

 novel, nature could be expected as the result of field-work 

 there, nevertheless some notes made during four days spent 

 in the neighbonrhood of Corofin last July ma}^ be found not 

 devoid of interest. The great bulk of Clare records come from 

 the north — the famous Burren area — which has attracted in- 

 numerable botanists, and from the south, along the Shannon, 

 where S. A. Stewart and others have worked. The centre is 

 thus left with comparatively little representation in our floras, 

 though half a century ago F. J. Foot, Rev. T. O'Mahony, Dr. 

 D. Moore, and more recently P. B. O'Kelly, H. C. Levinge, 

 and Miss Knowles have raided the area in question. My 

 rambles extended from Inchiquin Lough on the west to 

 Crusheen on the east, with a north and south extension of 

 less than ten miles. This is flattish limestone country, con- 

 sisting of low ridges of bare grey rock, or of tilled land, with 

 water-logged hollows occupied by mazy lakes or turloughs. 

 To the north, the outposts of the grey hills of Burren rise 

 gaunt and bare ; westward the Coal Measures form low hill- 

 ranges, which, in their softer outlines and grassy or rushy 

 surfaces, contrast sharply with the limestone. On the east, 

 again, the area is bounded by hills of Old Red Sandstone and 

 Ordovician rocks, which further back, towards Lough Derg, 

 rise to the dignity of mountains. The limestone basin drains 

 southward into the estuary of the Fergus, and that erratic 

 stream and its tributaries flit like wraiths through the district, 

 appearing and disappearing, and springing underground 

 from lake to lake. This latter fact is accountable for the 

 wonderful clearness and purit}' of the water of these ap- 

 parently stagnant lakes and marshes — a character that 

 recalls what one reads of the Everglades of Florida. Peat 

 occurs in the district only around a few of the lakelets ; 

 usually there is a flat marginal fringe of close grass and 



