l8 99-l Praeger. — A Botanist in the Central Plain. 91 



palustris. Jtmcus obtusiflorus was also present in immense 

 quantity, and the pools in which it grew harboured Utrmdaria 

 intermedia (a good addition to District V., being very rare so far 

 east in Ireland), Ranunculus Godro?iii, and Chara polyacantha. 

 Further south, near Nurney, Rhamnus catharticus, Trifolium 

 medium, and Ranunculus Drouetii were gathered, and as I 

 approached Athy in the evening Stachys ambigna, Potamogeton 

 densus, and Chczivphyllum temulum. After a night spent in 

 one of the worst hotels I ever came across in Ireland, I took 

 an early train to Kildare, and walked over the Curragh — a 

 barren place for the botanist, but on the race-course near the 

 grand stand Trifolium filiforme was detected growing in the 

 short turf, and Cerastium tetrandrum in gravelly places. I 

 made for the great gravel-pit through which the main line of 

 the G. S. W. Railway runs, and here an interesting lot of 

 colonists and casuals awaited me. Among them were Are?iaria 

 tenuifolia in abundance, not previously found in Ireland ; 

 Orobanche minor, Linaria viscida, Calamintka Acinos, 

 Coro7iopus Rtiellii, Alyssum calycinum. After an hour spent 

 under a railway w 7 agon owing to a torrent of rain, I went on 

 to explore the extensive marsh that lies to the north of the 

 gravel-pit. I had often looked at this from the train, and 

 wondered what gave it its dark brown colour. Great was my 

 surprise to find that this was caused by hundreds of fruit- 

 stems of Cladium, which grew in a forest, five feet or more 

 high over an area of half a square mile— a larger quantity of 

 it than I have ever seen in the west, where it is common, 

 whereas so far east as Kildare it is very rare. With it and 

 equally abundant was /uncus obtusiflorus, and among the 

 undergrowth Galium uliginosum, also very rare so far east, 

 Epipactis palustris, and the rare Eriophorum latifolium, new 

 to District V. 



The following week-end was spent at Ardee, working up 

 the Louth flora. One day was devoted to Ardee bog, and one 

 to the bog at Braganstown. Walking from Castlebellingham 

 station southward, Orobanche minor and Diplotaxis muralis 

 were seen by the railway-line. Braganstown bog, well known 

 as sheltering the largest colony of the Royal Fern to be found 

 on the eastern side of Ireland, proved rather poor. Pota?nogeto?i 

 coloratus, rare off the limestone, and here near the northern 



