22"2 The Irish Naturalist. [October, 



for a distance of three miles, thinning out rapidly about a mile 

 beyond the town ; and on the eastern or Castlebar road it 

 appeared in several places for a distance of about a mile and 

 a half from Newport. Though appearing frequently in dense 

 patches along the roadsides at considerable distances from 

 dwellings, it usually became more abundant where the road 

 passed a cabin or farm-yard. 



The peculiar manner of the plant's occurrence here at 

 Newport seems to point to its diffusion from many independent 

 centres. The seeds are most probably imported with damaged 

 American corn for fowl feeding, so that every hen-wife in the 

 country who uses American corn may become an unconscious 

 agent in the enrichment of our flora. As a matter of fact, 

 American corn is, and long has been, imported to Newport, 

 and the minute seeds of the Maf?icaiia could very easily 

 become mixed with and imported along with the grain. A 

 few plants once matured by a roadside, their countless small 

 and light seeds would be carried by wind and surface drainage 

 for considerable distances, and left enveloped in a matrix of 

 road mud under most favourable conditions for germination, 

 Railways, of course, play their part as distributors too. On 

 the journey down to Athlone on the ioth July last I noticed a 

 dense mass of the plant growing on the cattle platforms at 

 Ballinasloe, and on the return from Newport it appeared on 

 the permanent way at Castlebar, at Manulla junction, and at 

 Claremorris. Mr. Praeger tells me that he has observed the 

 plant this year in many other localities in Ireland. At 

 Carrickmines, Co. Dublin, one of its first observed Irish 

 stations, it has maintained itself for five j^ears ; at Westport 

 and Newport it has all the appearance of being long established. 

 On the whole, the evidence available up to the present is more 

 than sufficient to justify the admission of this prolific annual 

 s a member of the Irish flora. 



N. Coi,gan. 

 Dublin. 



