64 The Irish NaturalisU March, 19 12. 



Black-tailed Godwit at Lough Swilly. 



On 23rd January, Mr. John McConnell shot a Black-tailed Godwit {Lim- 

 osa helgica, J. F. Gmelin) at Inch, Lough Swilly. January is an unusual 

 time for the species to visit us. Previous records have been in late autumn 

 or spring. 



D. C. Campbell. 



Londonderry. 



BOTANY. 



Juncus acutus, Linn., in Co. Kilkenny. 



While travelling in the Rosslare express on March i8th, 1910, I caught 

 sight, from the carriage window, of a large tussock of Juncus acutus on the 

 river -bank as the train neared Waterford City, but knowing that mistakes 

 have frequently been made through identifying plants from trains and cars, 

 I waited for an opportunity of examining the specimens at close quarters 

 before making any record. Accordingly, being in Waterford on January 

 14th of this year, I walked along the railway, which here runs alongside the 

 River Suir, and at about two miles below the station, on a rocky point, 

 I found about a dozen large and luxuriant clumps of this handsome rush 

 in full fruit, growing in the thick tough clay which here and there overlies 

 the rocks at that place. The presence of this species so far from the coast 

 is remarkable, all its other known Irish habitats being sandy warrens and 

 marshes by the seaside. 



R. A. Phillips. 



Cork. 



Arbutus Unedo. 



A very interesting extension to the known continental range of this tree 

 is given in Elwes and Henry's " Trees of Great Britain and Ireland." 

 In Vol. HI. of that very comprehensive work, under Arbutus Unedo, p. 

 559, the authors quote from the Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xliii., p. 123 

 (1896), as follows: . . . "very abundant in company with Oak and 

 Mountain Ash, in a wood i\ miles in length, on the abrupt and rocky slope 

 of the cliff of Trieux, near Paimpol in Cotes du Nord (Dr. Avice)." On the 

 face of the record, there appears to be no reason to question the nativity 

 of the Arbutus in this locality, which forms a most satisfactory link between 

 its stations in south-west Ireland and those on the west coast of France. 

 Previous to this new record by Dr. Avice, the most northerly station known 

 on the continent was near La Rochelle in Charante Inferieure in about 46° 

 lat. ; as Paimpol in Brittany lies in 48-50' lat., the gap between its French 

 and Irish stations is reduced practically by one -half. 



R. W. Scully. 

 Dublin. 



