SYMONDS — NOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAND, 335 
animals were replaced by newly-created forms, so does it appear to 
have been with the vegetable world ; and the fossil-botanist informs us 
that we may not date the epoch of the oldest species of existing plants 
as anterior to the Eocene period. And here the phenomena of the 
flora of the west of Ireland give rise to some interesting speculations, 
in which the saxifrages and heaths we see around are intimately 
concerned. The most profound naturalist of modern days, Professor 
Edward Forbes, in his endeavours to trace the origin of the flora and 
fauna of the British islands, arrived at some very remarkable conclusions 
respecting the Iberian flora of the west coast of Ireland. The British 
flora is divided by Forbes into five great groups — the Iberian, the 
French, the English, the Alpine, and the Germanic ; and to explain 
the origin of the Iberian flora, with which we have to deal. Professor 
Forbes believed that a great continent was formed by the upheaval 
of the Miocene tertiaries, which extended far into the Atlantic; and 
that this tract bore the peculiar fauna and flora now known as the 
Mediterranean, fragments of which are still met with isolated in the 
Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, as well as in Ireland, and on the 
Spanish peninsula. Thus Forbes believed that the saxifrages and 
heaths of Kerry and Connemara are the survivors of this ancient flora 
— flowers far older than those of any of the other four floras — flowers 
which bloomed when the west of Ireland was geologically united with 
the north of Spain, and which have survived even the great climatal 
changes of the glacial epoch. If this hypothesis be correct, the saxi- 
frages and heaths of this western coast will probably be the oldest 
Burvivors of the last floral changes upon the plant's surface. Yerily, 
with " Old Eed " mountains, ancient glaciers, and plants still in 
existence that probably flourished when the west of Ireland was a 
portion of an old Miocene continent, we had much to think of, although 
the route back to Breen's peat fire and Kerry mutton was rough and 
weary. 
(jfu be continued.) 
