32 J. H. PRICE, I. TITTLEY & W. D. RICHARDSON 



Isles. On these grounds alone, Padina records from Ayrshire cannot be totally discounted since, 

 apart from other considerations, the environmental data derive from adjacent open sea, not coastal, 

 conditions. However, ephemeral occurrence of local conditions tolerable to Padina is likely to be a 

 rarer event in Ayrshire than in the more favoured southern areas. With considerable reservation, 

 since firm evidence against the record is lacking, we must accept this as a rare occurrence that 

 currently constitutes the known northern limit of the species, as based on extant specimens. 



Argyllshire 



Machrihanish Bay [Kintyre]: 



Lothian (1862), late December/January, drift. 



The record was based on material picked up from vast heaps of drift along the tide-mark, 

 most of it fresh and sent in by the preceding day's gale, some actually from the last tide. The 

 statement about P. pavonica expressed no doubt, but the list was terminated by '. . . with many 

 others which memory fails to furnish'. Reservation remains about this most northerly record on 

 the western coast since (a) drift Padina is rare in Britain (see elsewhere); (b) it is an especially odd 

 time of year for so northerly a location ; (c) substrata on Kintyre are not hospitable - shingle beaches 

 and rocky outcrops run down most of the western coast, whilst at Machrihanish there is a long 

 curve of sand backed by dunes; (d) there is no material to support this record clearly based on 

 memory after the event. Confusion with other species (? Taonid) is likely. 



Ireland 



Co. Galway 



Near Aughris, Cunnemara [Connemara]: 



Wade (1804), as Ulva pavonia. 



Padina '. . . was found sticking to the sea rocks . . .'. For general environmental comment, 

 affecting the credibility of the record, see Ayrshire, which presents a similar situation. The Co. 

 Galway record is even more doubtful than that from Ayr, since it is not based on an extant 

 specimen. Cullinane (1970 : 278) was unable to find material that could be proved to have con- 

 nection with Wade, or to be from this locality. The record must therefore be viewed with doubt, 

 but see the discussions later. 



Co. Cork 



Fennells Bay, near Myrtleville, Cork Harbour: 



shallow rock pool near MLWS, Cullinane (1970; 7977; 1973}. Specimen presumably in CRK. 



This material, the only authenticated Padina from Ireland, was collected by Cullinane from a 

 south-facing shore in Cork Harbour, where it was growing in a rock pool. The single small speci- 

 men, correctly determined, has been seen by one of us and is dated May 1968, despite the (1970) 

 statement that it was collected in 1967. Guiry (pers. comm.) examined the same area, including 

 the precise spot, described to him by Cullinane, in 1971 and August, 1973; no specimens of 

 Padina were detected. The 1968 find therefore provides a prime example of an ephemeral growth 

 in an unusual area, in conditions by chance tolerable; similar growths will probably eventually 

 occur in sheltered detrital circumstances elsewhere in the south of Ireland. This is not an original 

 forecast; Harvey (in Mackay, 1836) commented that P. pavonica '. . . one of the most remarkable 

 of British algae, has not yet been found on our [Irish] shores; but it may be expected to occur on 

 the southern coasts of Cork or Waterford'. 



Distribution along adjacent continental coasts 



This analysis is not as complete as that given for British Padina. Information has been assembled 

 up to the point when a consistent framework emerged, and that used for comparisons. General 

 trends in space and/or time on the Dutch, Belgian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese coasts have 

 so been identified, and related to past and present events concerning individuals or populations on 

 the British coasts. The patterns that emerge from continental data are still dependable; where 



