Botany In Down
The Mourne Mountains occupy the southern end of Co. Down, and form a bold and picturesque mass rising in Slieve Donard to 2796 ft. They are composed of granite lapped round by Silurian rocks. The higher hills lie towards the north-east, and here also is situated Tollymore Park, which is good ground for the botanist. Newcastle forms the, best centre. The flora of the slate is rather richer than that of the granite. The plants of the district include Meconopsis cambrica, Sanssurea alpina, many Hieracia including senescens, hibernicum, and argenfeum, Cryptogramme crispa. On thehigher grounds Sa.xifra.ga stellaris, Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, Salix herbacea, Listera cordata, Juniperus nana, Lycopodium alpinum are characteristic. Several picturesque 
tarns lie among the hills, and yield Lobelia Dortmanna and Isoefes lacusfris. An interesting hybrid Horsetail, Equisetum Morale (E. arvense x limosum) has one of its few Irish stations by the Bann River above Hilltown.
The Maritime Flora. The coast-line of Ulster is remarkably varied, and every kind of habitat is represented-lofty cliffs, rocks, great sandy stretches, land-locked bays, muddy estuaries, shingle beaches. The flora is varied similarly. In Down (Holiday 
Apartments, Down, Ireland) we get the northern limit of some plants which are frequent further south, such as Trigonella ornithopodioides, Artemisia maritima, Statice occidentalis, Atriplex portulacoides. Strangford Lough in the same county yields abundance of Glyceria fesfucceformis, a grass elsewhere confined to. the Shannon estuary and the Mediterranean. Near Belfast grows the very rare Zannichellia polycarpa. The northern Scottish Lovage, Ligusticum scoticum, extends along the coast from north Down (Accommodation, Down, Ireland) to north Donegal. The beautiful Mertensia maritima is another characteristic northern plant of the Ulster coast. Zostera nana is in Ulster found in Down and Donegal. Scilla verna is a characteristic plant of the coast of Down, Down (Holiday Homes, Down, Ireland), and Derry, brightening the short turf in spring with myriads of grey-blue flower-heads.