254 ^'^'^' ^^'^^^^ Nahiralist. Deceuiber, 



Scrophularia vernalis in Irekind. 



INIr. R. ^I. Barriiigton sends us an old letter, containing an unpublished 

 locality for this plant, which appears to be unrecorded for Ireland even 

 as a casual. It is from Prof. W. H. Harvey to Mr. Thomas Noble Cole, 

 of Ballitore, co. Kildare, is dated 26th May, 1858, and runs as follows : — 



" The plant from the " Ruins of Ballitore " is the Scrophularia vernalis — 

 rather a suspicious habitat for a rare British plant — not hitherto found 

 in Ireland. But in England it only grows on rubbish. I have no objec- 

 tion to your drying me a good specimen, or bringing one with you 

 for me to dry when you come." 



Asparagus officinalis in Co. Londonderry. 



Mr. D. C. Campbell has sent me a specimen of Asparagus collected last 

 August by his brother, Rev. W. N. Campbell, on the sands at the mouth 

 of the Bann. This being just the kind of place in which the plant is 

 found as an indigenous species, I have made inquiries, which show that 

 the Asparagus cannot on the strength of this discovery be added to the 

 northern flora. The specimen submitted belongs to the large cultivated 

 form, not to the smaller procumbent native type. One specimen alone 

 was found, and this was only a few feet above high water mark, suggest- 

 ing casual importation by the river, aided by a high tide and perhaps by 

 a oale. The spot where the plant was found was on the northern bank 

 of the river, three quarters of a mile from its mouth, and one-third of a 

 mile from the nearest point of the open sea. 



National Librar\ of Ireland. 



R. Ll,OVD Praegek. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Fossil Foraminifera. 



The Report and Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and 

 Philosophical Society for 1907-8, recently issued, contains a paper by 

 Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S.,. on Foraminifera obtained in sands and clays 

 from several localities near Belfast. 



Water Beetles at Armagh. 



In the April number of the Etitoinologist's Monthly Magazine, the Rev. W. 

 V. Johnson notes the capture of the local Water-beetle Hydroporus dorsalis, 

 P., in the Armagh district, and gives reasons for believing that the species 

 has become common there since the year 1895. 



Micropeplus coelatus in Ireland. 



In a combined note {Entomologists Monthly Magazine^^wXy, 1909), Messrs. 

 N. H. Joy and J. R. C. B. Toinlin record the occurrence of Micropeplus 

 coilatus, P:richson, in Ireland. It was taken sparingly at the end of Apri: 

 in marshy ground near Cloghane, in the County Kerry. The species had 

 not been previously noticed in the Britannic area. 



