344 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Aeademy. 
bogs. Eocky shores, interspersed with frequent sand dunes, charac- 
terize the exterior coast, while on the side of the estuary shingly and 
muddy beaches prevail. The country on the south of the estuary is 
made of interest by the many, and sometimes extensive, woods that 
diversify the scenery. At Eingmoylan Point, some ten miles below 
Limerick, there are remains of what seems to have been a rather 
extensive natural forest, but the trees now standing are mostly dead. 
Curragh Chace is an extensive wood which, if it were to be well 
searched, would occupy a botanist for many days. The wood-covered 
rocks at Poynes are also most interesting to the naturalist. On the 
Kerry coast, further west, the shores are rocky, with occasional sandy 
beaches, which gave good results as regards maritime plants. Bally- 
bunion, a seaside resort with considerable natural attractions, has a 
wide stretch of sandhills that extend some two miles to the south, 
and yield a good number of scarce plants. It is not to be supposed 
that the six days spent by me at this place in the summers of 1885 
and 1886, by any means exhausted its botanical interest. 
The leading feature, as respects the geology of the neighbour- 
hood of the Shannon Estuary, is the prevalence of rocks of one great 
geological epoch, namely, the Carboniferous ; rocks which though 
brought comparatively near together, as regards age, are yet very 
unlike in structural and in chemical characters, producing, therefore, 
very different effects on the aspect of the country, and on its vege- 
table productions. The shales of the Coal Measures form the domi- 
nant rocks of the greater part of the district. Commercially they 
yield, in places, flag-stones of marketable value, and thin seams of 
coal occur. In the district west of Foynes the coals lie at but slight 
depths below the surface, and from time to time have been worked in 
a primitive and inexpensive manner. Frequently the older rocks are 
obscured by alluvial deposits, the co^^rses of the more important 
rivers being marked, more or less, by these alluvial flats. By the 
Shannon, the alluvium is found below high water, and is often capped 
by drift accumulations forming low islands. On the south side of the 
mouth of the Shannon there are grits, and yellow sandstones that 
have been classed as Upper Old Bed. Silurian rocks (Llandovery) 
occur at Ballycar and elsewhere, but so slightly developed as to be 
comparatively insignificant. 
In the lists which follow there are enumerated — of Phanerogamia, 
459 species; Yascular Cryptogamia, 18; Characese, 4; Musci, 84; 
Hepaticae, 14 : in all, 579 species. Though this number reaches 
nearly to one-hal£ of the Irish flora, it cannot be said to represent the 
