412 



THE BRITISH VEGETATION COMMITTEE IN THE 

 WEST OF IRELAND. 



R. LLOYD PRAEGER, B.A. 



The following notes refer to a trip in Connemara and on the 

 northern border of Clare, carried out at the end of August, 

 under the auspices of the Central Committee for the Survey 

 and Study of British Vegetation. Advantage was taken of 

 the impending Dubhn meeting of the British Association, at 

 which, it was expected, the majority of the members of the 

 Committee would be present, to arrange a brief tour during 

 which ecological and floristic observations might be combined. 

 The itinerary was planned so as to allow of both the study of 

 the leading plant formations of the district, and the seeing of 

 the more remarkable plants of western Ireland in their native 

 habitats. 



The party left Broadstone Station, Dublin, by the 7 a.m. 

 express on August 27th, and included Mr. A. G. Tansley and 

 Dr. C. E. Moss (Cambridge), Mr. F. J. Lewis (Liverpool 

 University), Dr.T. W. Woodhead (Huddersfield), and Prof. Yapp 

 (Aberystwyth), with the writer as courier. In addition, our 

 personnel was much enhanced by the presence of several 

 visitors — Prof. F. O. Bower (Glasgow), Prof. F. E. Weiss 

 (Manchester), Prof. W. E. Praeger (Kalamazoo, Michigan), Mr. 

 Adamson (Edinburgh), and Mr. F. T. Brooks (Cambridge). 



The three-hours run across Ireland from sea to sea was in 

 itself instructive. First, the level rich grass lands of Dublin 

 and Meath, with great hedges and many trees. Next, the 

 poorer country of the central plain, still heavily covered with 

 drift, often overlain with vast swelling peat-bogs ; the trees 

 less lofty, and displaying a more marked bending towards the 

 east, the result of the prevailing westerly winds. Then, as the 

 drift thinned out westward, the grey limestone rock began to 

 peep out, till near Galway it occupied the greater part of the 

 surface, and arboreal vegetation degenerated into thorn and 

 hazel scrub. Entering Connemara, the abrupt change of 

 vegetation was noted where the limestone gave way to gnarled 

 driftless metamorphic rocks ; and the wet peat, resting on the 

 rock, supported a heath vegetation. Native trees were entirely 

 absent, save for low dense wood on th'^ islands in the innumer- 

 able lakes. 



Naturalist. 



