156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



variably ; and its chemical constitution is entirely different from 

 the true L. digitata. 



Many tons of Chondrus crisjnis and Gigartina mammillosa are also 

 collected on this shore. After being bleached and dried they form 

 the article of commerce called " Carrageen moss," used largely in 

 stiffening cloth, and as an article of food. It is sometimes the 

 principal ingredient in so called " calves'-foot jelly." 



Leaving the shore, and going further west to Cloghaneely and 

 Rosses, one cannot but be struck by the abundance of the Eoyal 

 Fern, Osmunda regalis. Instead of being the nearly extirpated rarity 

 it is in the Clyde valley, it is here a common weed, fringing with 

 its beautiful fronds the wayside ditches, and in marshy grounds 

 growing in clumps, like a little forest. It is not beloved of 

 farmers, for in their system it is classed with rushes, "fog" 

 (mosses), and Marsh Marygold, which are all to be banished by 

 drainage " when the times mend." Ferns, generally, are not so 

 sjpecifically numerous as in Scotland. One looks in vain for 

 Allosorus crispus, Polyj^odium dryopteris, Aspidium loncliitis, Opliio- 

 glossum vidgatum, etc., but within fifteen minutes' walk of Ramelton 

 can be seen Ceterach qfficinarum, Asplenium ruta-muraria, Osmunda 

 regalis, Scolopendrium vulgare, Hymenophyllum wilsoni, and H. 

 tanhridgense, while Polypodium phegopteris and Aspidkmi oreopteris 

 occur near Mulroy bay. Asplenium marinum is found here and 

 there near the shore, but is not common. 



The Holly (Ilex aguifolium) is in remarkable profusion all about 

 Ramelton, and this, with the luxuriant clothing of ivy over the 

 trunks of old oaks, makes bits of fresh colour which the eye 

 delights to rest on all the year round. All this holly, I am 

 convinced, is natural, growing, as it does, on nearly every spot of 

 rough land, on the rocky river-banks, and in all the woods; but it 

 is noticeable that only the plants growing in the open bear berries, 

 those in the woods being, mth a very rare exception, infertile. 



In the vicinity of this village is a good example of a natural 

 wood, called " Drumonaghan planting," though the substantive 

 is a misnomer. None but truly indigenous trees are to be found, 

 and many of the oaks and elms are evidently very old. In another 

 natural wood at Ballyconly, three miles northwards, grows that 

 rare orchid, the Aceras antliropopliora or Green Man-orchis. In all 

 the rivers and lochs one cannot fail to meet the yellow and white 

 water-lilies, and the splendid spikes of the cat's-tail {Typlia latifolia) 



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