i9^o. Praeger. — Notes on Antrim Plants, 



NOTES ON ANTRIM PLANTS. 



BY R. LLOYD PRAEGER. 



When one goes botanizing in Co. Antrim, one is on classic 

 ground ; and on ground, moreover, which has been as well 

 worked and of which the flora is as well known, as anv in 

 Ireland, Co. Dubhn itself not excepted. A local band of 

 botanists keep careful watch over its botanical treasures, 

 and even individual plants of some of the rarest species 

 have attracted pilgrims who visit them and report on their 

 progress. This advanced state of the knowledge of the 

 local flora, and also the trouble that has been caused by 

 the vague localization of some of the older records, are my 

 excuse for a greater prolixity of detail in the following 

 notes than is generally necessary or desirable in a paper 

 of the kind. 



The approaching completion of a supplement and 

 summary to Stewart and Corry's " Flora of the North-east 

 of Ireland " rendered desirable further search for some 

 plants of Co. Antrim which either have not been seen for 

 many years, or of which it seemed important to determine 

 the limits of distribution. Accordingly, A. W. Stelfox and 

 I took up head-quarters at Ballymena on July ist, and 

 devoted ten days to an examination of selected areas 

 extending from Portmore Lough and the Rasharkin bogs 

 on the west to Agnew's Hill and Glenariff on the east, 

 special attention being paid to the wide area of high moors 

 (conveniently called the Garron Plateau) which extends 

 from Garron Point south-west towards Ballymena, main- 

 taining for ten miles an elevation of i,ooo to 1,200 feet. 

 This is a flatfish area of wet trackless bog, untrodden even 

 by the turf-cutter save here and there on its edges, and 

 tenanted chiefly by breeding birds : — Curlew, Dunlin, Red- 

 shank, Golden Plover, and colonies of Lesser Black-backed 

 and Black-headed Gulls. Round its northern and eastern 

 edges, from the head of Glenariff to Carnlough, a steep scarp 

 extends, which is for most of that distance magnificently 

 precipitous. 



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