1903- PRAKGEJR. — Botayiizhig in the Ards. 257 



Kent {Flor. Kent, p. 405), and Miss Knowles collected a grass 

 like it in lyimerick this year {ante, p, 251). 



Though placed under G. distafis in " Index Kewensis," 

 G. festuccBformis is looked on as a distinct species by most 

 European botanists, and will be found treated as such in the 

 leading floras, such as Grenier and Godron's Flore de Fra7ice^ 

 Bubani's Flora Pyrencsa, Parlatore's Flora Italiana, 

 Reichenbach's Iconographia Bo tallica, Ny man's Conspectiis, and 

 Richter's Plaiitce EuropcBCB. The Irish plant will be described 

 and figured in an early number of the Journal oj Botaiiy. 



We have grown accustomed to associate the occurrence of 

 Mediterranean, or other southern species in Ireland, with 

 southern or western ranges in this country (e.g. Arbutus Unedo 

 and Habenafia intacta, which are widely spread Mediterranean 

 plants, Dabeocia polifolia, Saxijraga umbrosa, dfc.) ; and 

 the occurrence of a Mediterranean species in the North- 

 east of Ireland appears a startling anomaly. A little thought, 

 however, tends to lessen one's astonishment. The Cautabrian 

 group and other southern species of similar range in Ireland 

 are as a rule upland plants, favouring a damp warm climate, 

 and in many cases a peaty soil. TJiey are a hygrophile- 

 frigofuge group on the whole ; and the hills of western Ireland 

 supply just such a habitat as they like. Habenaria intacta, the 

 only one with any xerophiie tendencies, chooses the dr}- warm 

 limestones. But a sea-shore plant like Glyceria festuccsformis, 

 assuming its occurrence anywhere in Ireland, one could not 

 so confidently expect to find confined to the west. The 

 western maritime flora is scanty compared to the eastern, and 

 the habitat of this plant would protect it from frost in any 

 part of Ireland. Furthermore, we find in the fauna a remark- 

 able eastern range in Ireland of certain forms southern 

 in Europe ; this feature now at last finds a parallel among 

 plants. The fine beetle, Otiorrhynchus auropunctatus, inhabiting 

 the Pyrenees and Auvergne, and absent from Great Britain, 

 ranges in Ireland along the east coast from Wicklow to 

 Donegal. The snail, Helix Pisana, spread widely along the 

 Mediterranean, reappears in Madeira and the Azores, S. 

 Wales and Cornwall, and in Ireland along the east coast from 

 Rush to Drogheda. Ths Dublin House-spider, Tegenaria 



hiber7iica, finds its nearest ally in a Pyrenean species. The 



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