120 The Irish SalityalisL July, 



23rd April. The Willow- Wren was iirst noted this year 

 on 24th April — fully a fortnight behind its usual time. 



Flillsborough, Co. Down. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 

 Effects of the late Spring:. 



A conspicuous Ciiect of the severe winter and late spring has been an 

 upsetting of the date of flowering of spring plants ; and some species 

 have been much more retarded than others, as the following examples 

 will show. At Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, on I\Iay 20th, Blackthorn and 

 Hawthorn were flowering together, accompanied by Broom. Lesser 

 Calendines were still abundant, though Wild Hyacinths were already in 

 bloom. I already noted in these pages the mortality of Foxgloves in that 

 area. Gorse has also suffered very severely, about two-thirds of the 

 bushes being killed, at least in the upper parts . Whole hillsides, which 

 last year were sheets of gold, were this year brown and lifeless. The 

 destruction of Gorse perhaps followed the course of the great snowstorm 

 for on June 2nd the hillsides of the Carlingford range above Dundalk, were 

 golden with Gorse apparently uninjured — a very late date for such 

 abundant flowering. 



Dubhn. R. Lloyd Praeger. 



Blue Wood Anemones. 



In the valley between Aughavannagh and Ballymanus Bridge, in Wick- 

 low, we lately found a variety of colour-forms of the Wood Anemone, 

 distributed over several miles of county. The most marked were of a 

 fine deep blue — just the deep greyish blue of Hepatica triloba. Others 

 were paler and of large size, resembling the vars. Rohinsoniana and Allcni 

 of gardens. Others again were purple, owing to the presence of red 

 pigment on the back and blue on the face of the sepals. There were also 

 very large creamy forms, or white with a red reverse. On enquiry. Sir 

 F. W. Moore pointed out at Cilasnevin a good blue form sent by The 

 O'Mahony from this district some years ago, and grown there as the 

 Mucklagh variety. In the National Herbarium there are blue specimens 

 collected by R. M. Barrington in 1904 at 1,000 feet on the west side of 

 Ballinabarry Gap — that is about seven miles W.N.W. of the previous 

 stations. Sir F. Moore was in the neighbourhood a week after our visit, 

 and extended the area of the blue Anemones some miles to the south-west. 

 There would appear, therefore, to be a wide area around Aughavannagh 

 in which the Wood Anemone varies in this unusual way. 



Dublin. K. Lloyd Praegeh. 



