272 The Irish Naturalist, October, 



Luzula albida var. rubella in Ireland. 



This graceful Luzula, I think, has not heretofore been observed in 

 Ireland. Being an interesting and a welcome stranger a note of its 

 occurrence here may not be out of place. 



It has been met with in two places, not far apart, at the border of an 

 enclosed plantation near the west side at Lenaderg, County Down. The 

 plant is in fair quantity, but not more than about a dozen flowering 

 stems were observed, and as these were gathered early in July it cannot 

 yet be stated whether it matures its seed. By what agency, when and 

 where the plant came here is a problem one need hardly, at present, 

 attempt to solve. I know of nothing to suggest intentional introduction. 

 It seems to have fixed itself, and to be as much in place as the grasses 

 (chiefly Deschampsia caspitosti) amongst which it grows. The variety seems 

 to dififer from the type mainly in the colour of the inflorescence, which 

 has a fuscous hue, and in the long, soft pilose leaves being rather 

 narrower. 



In the list of excluded species at the end of Hooker's Student's Flora, 

 1884, Luzula albida is mentioned as " a casual in Surrey." Specimens 

 from that county, which, through the kindness of Mr. S. A. Stewart, I 

 have had the opportunity of examining, were gathered in 1893 by Major 

 WoUey-Dod, so that it may be held to be established there. In 1883 the 

 var. rubella, identical with the present plant, was collected in two places 

 in Worcestershire by Mr. Arnold I^ees. There it is abundant. On the 

 label attached to the examples I have seen Mr. Lees writes : — " In pro- 

 fusion for two miles along the sandy and rocky banks of the Bewdley 

 branch railway, and sparingly in Warren Wood — May and June, 1883." 

 My old friend William Foggitt informs me that his first record for York 

 shire is July, 1886, and that he had seen it growing there several years 

 later. Mr Druce records the variety rubella in his Flora of Berkshire under 

 the name oi luticoides nemorosum Morong. 



The species is widely diffused in Continental Europe. In Kngland it 

 seems to have been first noticed about a quarter of a century ago, and its 

 distribution there, so far as I know it, is here given to show that it has 

 no slight claim to the position of a naturalized alien. It is not improbable 

 that, in course of time, it may gain a like foothold in Ireland. 



J. H. Davids. 



lycuaderg, Co. Down. 



Arabis ciliata. 



To th.Q /ournal of Botany for August Mr. F. Townsend contributes what 

 is practically a translation of a paper on this critical plant by M. Georges 

 Rouy in the Revue de Botanique Systernatique for May, the .basis of the 

 paper being specimens collected on sand-hills in South Kerr}'^ by Rev. 

 B. S. Marshall in June, 1902. The writer first points out that con- 

 fusion has arisen between the rare A. ciliata, R. Br., a plant confined to 

 the coast of western (in error eastern is printed) Ireland and of Pem- 

 brokeshire, and A. ciliata, Koch = ^. arcuata, Shuttleworth, an alpin 



