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JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than three strange heaths occur in the district, often growing in great 

 abundance; and none of them is found anywhere else in the British 

 Islands. These are St. Dabeoc's Heath {Daheocia polifolia), the Medi- 

 terranean Heath {Erica mediterranea) (fig. 106), and Mackay's Heath 

 (E. Machaii). A special significance attaches to these plants, inasmuch 

 as they are absent from the whole of the northern portion of the Conti- 

 nent, and do not reappear till we get as far south as the Pyrenees. 

 Nor are these the only Connemara plants which have elsewhere an 

 entirely south-western range in Europe. For instance, on every rock in 

 Connemara, up to the tops of the highest hills, nestle the close rosettes 

 of the well-known London Pride {Saxijraga umhrosa) ; we may find this 

 plant all along -the West Coast of Ireland, but elsewhere, as a native, 

 only in the Pyrenean region. Examining the flora more closely we dis- 

 cover another stranger, this time a water plant — a little plant with a tuft 

 of grassy, submerged leaves and an erect stem bearing a button-like head 

 of greyish flowers. This little hydrophyte constitutes a very great 

 puzzle, for it proves to be the Pipewort {Eriocaidon septangular e) 

 (fig. 107), a North American species unknown on the Continent of 

 Europe. It ranges up and down the West of Ireland, and reappears 

 sparingly in the western isles of Scotland ; elsewhere it is confined exclu- 

 sively to the northern United States and Canada. For the present we 

 must only bear in mind the very remarkable distribution of this plant; 

 its significance will appear later. Plenty of other interesting plants 

 await us in Connemara, but with, these few examples of its most remark- 

 able species we m.ust pass on to another scene. 



In the grand county of Kerry, the massive Devonian sandstones ond 

 slates form mountain -folds which run north-east and south-west, pro- 

 jecting far into the Atlantic in a series of noble promontories before 

 they sink below the level of the ocean. The deep valleys between are 

 often paved with the last fragments of the limestones that once arched 

 over these great ridges, and their lower parts are filled with long fiord- 

 like sea inlets. This, again, is a heathery country save on the lime- 

 stone, where grass prevails ; and the great ribs of rock give shelter 

 and allow of the growth of a considerable amount of native timber. 

 In these woods, especially in the more inaccessible spots, among the 

 Birch, Oak, Ash, Holly, and Yew that flourish there, w^e are surprised 

 to meet with great trees of Arbutus Unedo (fig. 108), with their hand- 

 some red trunks and evergreen foliage ; and it comes upon us in a flash 

 that here is again an instance, as in Connemara, of a far southern plant 

 inhabiting western Ireland, for the Arbutus is a member of the Mediter- 

 ranean flora, growing in Spain, Italy, Greece, but not in the more 

 northern parts of the Continent. Seeking for further evidence, we find 

 among the rocks abundance not only of the now familiar London Pride, 

 but also of its ally, the Kidney-leaved Saxifrage (Saxijraga Geum), 

 elsewhere (sa\Te for a single newly discovered station in Mayo) ex- 

 clusively a plant of the Pyrenean region. The undergrowth of the 

 woods, too, is full of a handsome species of Spurge, which we identify 

 as Euphorbia hiberna. This plant has its headquarters in south-west 



