Hart — On the Mountain Flora of Ireland. 515 
any rate desirable that the results collected here from my scattered 
Papers should be epitomized and rendered available. In several cases 
interesting comparisons may be made with the altitudes found in the 
Cyhele Britannica, showing that a few Alpines, such as Salix herhacea, 
Car ex rigida, Saxifraga stellaris, and one or two others, are less Alpine, 
and descend to lower levels in Ireland than anywhere else in the 
British Isles, apparently even in the Scotch highlands and islands. 
This may be supposed a consequence of our cloudier and more 
tempered summer time. Similarly, some lowland plants ascend 
higher ; those will be more fully noted further on. 
I give a list of the counties and their mountains dealt with, as 
arranged by me, in districts. I cannot claim to have examined all the 
summits ; but I think above two thousand feet I have left very few 
unexamined in the south, and a lower height was necessarily explored 
in the north. Most Alpine species require a considerable mass of 
mountain ground above their stations in order that surface moisture 
may be present. Salix herlacea, Car ex rigida, and Lycopodium alpinum 
are notable exceptions to this rule. As a result of this it will be 
found that although the mean height in Kerry at which all Kerry 
Alpines occur is about two thousand two hundred feet, yet there 
will seldom be found more than two or three Alpine species on those 
mountains which do not reach several hundred feet higher. A similar 
mean in Donegal is under eleven hundred feet, and there are no 
groups of Alpines to be found except when the summits preach some 
six or seven hundred feet or more above that height. 
The total number of plants designated as Alpine " in Ireland is 
thirty-one, and the total number of species here dealt with is four 
hundred and twenty-one. The latter total may be taken as corre- 
sponding with Watson's zones 3, 4, and 5 (see post, p. 560) ; but it 
must be understood that no close comparison of ranges in our limited 
space and vertical height can be made with those dealt with by 
Watson in Great Britain without danger of fallacious and unreliable 
deductions. 
I will now enumerate and define the mountain districts of Ire- 
land : — 
I. Keeey and Coek.— Lat. 51° 20' to 52° 20'. Sotjth-Westeen-. 
{a) The MacGilly cuddy's Eeeks, Carn Tual, 3414 feet, 
the highest point in Ireland. Other summits in 
this range are — Beenkeeragh, 3314 feet; Caher, 
