194 * 'j^he Irish Naturalist. 



be found, perhaps, to contain nothing strikingly novel for 

 students of the Dublin flora. It is hoped, however, that they 

 may serve to exhibit with some clearness the county distribu- 

 tion of the Dublin orchids, as at present known, and thus 

 show the direction in which further inquiry may be useful. 



Malaxls paludosa (Sw.)— Bog Orchis.— vStill in some abundance 

 in its old station on Glendliu Mountain, where I had the pleasure of 

 pointing it out in September last to Dr. I^eitch, of Silloth, who on the 

 same day discovered another station for the species on the mountains to 

 the eastward above GlencuUen Bridge, at a height of i,ooo feet. For ten 

 years this plant has maintained itself in precisely the same patch of 

 Sphagnwn on Glendhu Mountain. It would be of interest to know 

 whether it still holds its ground in its earliest recorded Dublin station, 

 at the head of Glenasmole, where it was found eighty years ago by John 

 Templeton, who, in his IMS. Irish Flora, records the discovery in these 

 words:— "In marshy places about Kelly's Glen, River Dodder, July, 

 1814, in company with Dr. Ta3-lor and Mr. Mackay ; in flower July 23rd, 

 1814." Mr. John Bain, who more than once gathered the plant here in 

 his early botanical excursions with Dr. Mackay about the date of the 

 publication of the Flora Hibernica{i^2i^), tells me that Templeton's station 

 is no doubt the mossy plashes on the right above Grierson's, now Cobb's, 

 Lodge at the head of the glen. Malaxis, it may be noted, should be 

 sought for not only in living Sphagnum beds, but also round their edges, 

 where a constant trickle of moisture passes over freer ground. In its 

 Glendhu station it usually occurs in groups or clusters, a number of 

 small plants, one inch or less in height, surrounding a larger, sometimes 

 three-inch, central plant. This outer ring arises, no doubt, from the 

 growth of the characteristic leaf-bulbils dropped by the more mature 

 central plant. 



Ranging in Dublin from 1,000 to 1,300 feet. 



Llstera cordata (R. Br.)— Lesser Tway-bi,adi:.— Probably abund- 

 ant in the Dublin mountains wherever the heather is well grown and 

 not too dense below. First recorded for the county in the late Mr. A. G. 

 More's Rtrent Additions (1872). Mr, H. C. Hart tells me that he gathered 

 the plant on Feather Bed Mountain in 1867. It occurs frequently on 

 Glendhu Mountain, on Kippure, and on the slopes between Kilmashogue 

 and the Three Rock. 



Ranging from 1,200 feet on Kilmashogue to 2,000 feet on Kippure. 



Llstera ovata (R. Br.)— Common Tway-bi;ade.— Abundant in the 

 county, especially on moist " drift " banks. Specimens gathered last 

 year on the railway cuttings between Raheny and Killester, where this 

 orchid grows in great profusion, measured 2 feet 2 inches in height, 

 with leaves 6 inches by 3 inches. The three-leaved form mentioned in 

 Smith's English Flora (4th Kd., 1830), is probably not uncommon in the 

 county. Mr. W. H. Bloomer has shown me fine specimens of it gathered 



