1%9-J t)AviKS. — Poa compiessa as an Irish Ptani. 22$ 



but gives a recent addition for District IV. (Moffat) and also 

 one for District X., " Roadside between Portadown and 

 I^urgan" (W. MacMillen). Mr. MacMillen, whom I lately had 

 the pleasure of meeting, informs me that the date of his dis- 

 covery of the plant at this place was 1866, and that it occurs 

 in several .spots on a dry bank by the footpath. No date is 

 given for the Derry station, but Dr. Moore was there about 

 1836, and it was probably at that time that he detected the 

 grass on the walls of the city. Mr. Stewart has shown me 

 specimens gathered there by himself in 1S88, and for aught 

 that is known to the contrary it still exists there, and is 

 probably to be found on other old walls in the vicinity. 



When reference was made to the Cybele for information as 

 to its distribution in our island, it was disconcerting to discover 

 that Poa comprcssa, which hy our veteran northern botanist, 

 Mr. Stewart, and others, was always held to be native, had 

 been degraded, as an intruder, to a place without the Irish 

 flora proper. 



Unless Mr. Colgan and Dr. Scully (in whose meritorious 

 book so very few questionable conclusions are to be found), 

 have reasons which do not appear, I think— and hope it will 

 not be held presumptuous in me to say — that in their treatment 

 of this grass they have been rather arbitrary. 



The first edition of Cybele gives the obelisk mark to signify 

 that the species may possibly have been introduced at a remote 

 period. The second edition goes beyond this and states, 

 " introduced in all of its stations." In what manner intro- 

 duced ? Its habitats are old walls for the most part, sometimes 

 dry banks and old gravel pits. A plant of European and 

 Asiatic distribution, in Britain, where it has always been 

 adjudged as a true native, it was first distinguished by Sherard 

 in 1724 "on the walls about Hltham." It is not a plant of 

 cultivated ground. What, then, is there to arouse suspicion ? 

 When specially searched for it has been found and will most 

 likely prove to be more widely distributed than has been 

 supposed. In like manner Poa ncmoralis was regarded as 

 very rare in the North, and had not been seen by Stewart and 

 Corry. But Rev. C. H. Waddell, Rev. H. W. Lett and others 

 have recently shown that it is not of infrequent occurrence. 

 Mr. Waddell writes : — ;< It is probably not uncommon. I find 



