304 



JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY., 



area is decked witli the vivid blue flowers of tlie Spring Gentian ((Icn- 

 tiana venia), abounding alil\e on tlie coastal sand-dunes and on the liill- 

 tops. The Bearberry (iirclosia pliylos Vra-iirsi), loo, trails over every 

 rock, with the Dwarf Junij)er {J iiiiipcrus ikiiki), the A'ernal Sand- 

 wort (Arenaria verna), the rai'e little Evphrasia salishurgensis, and 

 Saxifraga Sternhergii (fig. 109). And in striking contrast with these 

 hardy alpine-loving species we find mixed with them tender plants of 

 the south, which here grow further northw^ard than in any other country. 

 The deep cracks in the limestone pavements, and also in vertical rocks, 

 are filled with the Maidenhair (Adiantum Capillus-Veneris), growing 

 in great luxuriance ; and still more suggestive of southern climes is a 

 little orchid {Neotinea intacta), which flowers ih May among the Moun- 

 tain Avens and Spring Gentian; it is found nowhere in the British 

 Isles save in the west of Ireland, and elsewhere it is exclusively a plant 

 of the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. Among this remarkable 

 assemblage of northern and southern forms other striking plants grow 

 in very unusual profusion, helping to emphasize the peculiar character 

 of the flora — the Bloody Crane's-bill (Geranium sanguineum), the Wild 

 Madder (Rubia peregrina), the Squinancy-wort (Asperula cynancliica), 

 Blue Moor-grass (Sesleria caerulea), Stone Bramble (Ruhus saxatilis), 

 and more locally the rare Hoary Rock-rose [Heliafithemuin vineale). 

 Shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), and other interesting species, 

 all set in an extraordinary profusion of Scale Fern and Hart's-tongue. 

 These grey hills of stone, which at a short distance seem a mere 

 desert, prove on closer acquaintance a veritable botanical paradise. 



Let us take one more West of Ireland scene — another limestone 

 district, lying a hundred miles north of the last, in the counties of Sligo 

 and Leitrim. Here, as in Clare, the grey rock still reposes undisturbed 

 in horizontal sheets, as originally laid down, though now raised up to 

 nearly 2000 feet above sea-le.vel. But in this district the Ice Age has 

 not ground down the limestones into undulating hills. Instead, the 

 weather, attacking the strong, vertical cracks or joints with which the 

 rock is traversed, has by degrees eaten into the edges of the mass, and 

 carved deep valleys across it, so that there now remains a lofty table- 

 land, fringed with great grey cliff-walls and traversed by deep fertile 

 vales, over which on each side the lofty limestone precipices stand 

 imminent. The fertile boulder-clay which fills the valleys and covers 

 the plain which surrounds the hill-masses, yields pleasant farm-land, 

 with trees and green fields; the plateau itself, which still bears frag- 

 ments of the newer sandy and shaley rocks that once covered the lime- 

 stone, is densely clothed with, shaggy brown bog; and it is on the grey 

 cliff-walls themselves that the botanist finds his harvest. Here, on 

 Ben Bulben and its neighbours, is gathered together a very interesting 

 assemblage of plants, mostly alpine in their general distribution. Con- 

 spicuous among them is a little Sandwort {Arenaria ciliaia), a tiny plant 

 forming green mats smothered in white blossoms, which is not found 

 elsewhere in the British Islands. With it grow masses of Silene acaidis, 

 Draha incana, Dryas octopeitala, Saxifraga aizoides, S. Jiypnoides, 



