I36 The hi^h Naturalist. July, 1912. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



Irish Plants collected on the International Excursion of 1911. 



In the Irish Naturalist for November last, Mr. G. C. Druce noticed two 

 plants — Castalia Candida and Viola epipsila, collected by members of 

 the party which visited the south and west of Ireland in the preceding 

 August. In the New Phytologist for December last, Mr. Druce discusses 

 fully the floristic results of this excursion, and his paper re-appears as an 

 appendix to the Botanical Exchange Club Report for 191 1, published 

 last April. In the New Phytologist for April last, Dr. C. H. Ostenfield 

 writes on the same subject. 



The two Irish plants which bulk largest in these communications are 

 Castalia Candida and Viola epipsila. But the former, recorded positively 

 by Druce, is now withdrawn by Ostenfield (who first drew the members' 

 attention to it in the field) ; he names the Irish plant instead C. alba var. 

 occidentalis nov. var. As to the Violet, while Druce treats it as a 

 species, it will appear to conservative botanists rather as a large form of 

 V. paliistris. I believe I have seen it in several places in Ireland, but I 

 have no specimens. Another " new plant " is Peplis Portula var, dentata 

 Druce from Killarney, which " forms a passage to the Mediterranean and 

 Western variety longidenta J. Gay." Dr. Ostenfield describes as Erica 

 Praegeri a new hybrid Heath {E. Ma:kayix Tetralix) from the classical 

 locality of Craigga More. The Heaths of this section are very variable 

 and puzzling, and at present not understood, and the present plant appears 

 rather shadowy. I fancy Carna and Gweedore would yield several new 

 " species " or " hybrids " to the enthusiastic splitter. In Druce's paper 

 will be found a number of Irish records for slight varieties and also for 

 some aliens. 



R. Li. Praeger. 



Dublin. 



Irish Bird Records. 



In the Zoologist for November Mr. R. Warren has some notes on the 

 nocturnal habits of the Redwing (Tardus iliacus). In the same number 

 Mr. F. C. R. Jourdain, writing on the disappearance of the Osprey in 

 Scotland, opined that this is due to the destruction of this bird on its 

 passage or migration across Ireland. This statement led to a lively 

 discussion in the pages of the Journal named, between Mr. Jourdain, 

 Mr. Warren, Mr. Barrington, and Mr. Harvie-Brown, in which the Irish 

 ornithologists claim that the south-western distribution of the Osprey 

 records from Ireland prove that the Irish Ospreys were not on their way 

 to Scotland at all. In the January number Mr. Warren records a young 

 Glaucous Gull shot in December near Ballina, and in the March number 

 a Common Sandpiper shot in January at Crosshaven. 



British Birds for February contains a note by Mr. Ussher on Bernacle 

 Geese on the sonth coast of Ireland, 



