i68 The Irish Naturalist. October, 



DUBLIN NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



July 21. — Excursion to the North Bull. — A party of 12 assembled 

 at the Bull bridge, Dollymount, about 2 p.m., and proceeding along the 

 Bull Wall struck northward past the army huts until the hollows amongst 

 the sand-hills beyond the range of targets were reached. Here a halt 

 for luncheon was made in rich botanical ground carpeted with the Sea 

 ]\Iilk-wort (Glaux), the Knotted Spurrey and the Sand Pansy [Viohi 

 Ciiytisii), more conspicuous features being the Yellow-wort and the 

 Centaury with occasional belated spikes of the Pyramidal Orchis. 



Mr. Arnold Graves having been duly elected a member at a business 

 meeting held after lunch, the majority of the party pushed northward 

 to the extreme end of the sand-bank leaving a contingent behind to more 

 fully explore the sandy hollows. Though a drifting sea fog veiled the 

 Bay and shut out the fine prospect of the Dublin Hills for which the Bull 

 is famous, the dunes were flooded in sunshine and troops of the Six-spotted 

 Burnet hovered over the tall Ragweeds, the silky, yellow cocoons of the 

 moth being observed in large numbers on the slender stems of the Sea 

 Bent (Psamma). Farther on two fine individuals of the Silver-washed 

 Fritillary were seen and careful search amongst the dense growth of 

 Bent was rewarded by the discovery of abundance of the Kamtschatkan 

 Wormwood, Artemisia Stelleviana, an accidentally introduced alien first 

 detected here by Miss A. G. Kinahan in 1891, and still maintaining its 

 place amongst natural surroundings. Several plants of Asparagus, too, 

 were noted looking thoroughly wild amongst the native growths and near 

 the extreme end of the sandbank a large solitary tuft of the Trailing 

 Willow {Salix repens) was seen, the only plant of this willow established 

 on the dunes here and probably originating in seed wind-borne from the 

 banks of Portmarnock about a mile to the northward. 



Nearing the extreme Sutton end of the Bull a remarkable mirage effect 

 was witnessed. Through the heat haze and the drifting sea mist an 

 archipelago of rocky islets appeared rising from the sea in the distance, 

 but as the party ap)proached this visionary archipelago it resolved itself 

 into A few sand hummocks less than a foot higli, capped with sea-weed, 

 and lying near the edge of ebb tide. On the way back vast sheets of the 

 Sea Lavenders [Staiice rarijiora and 5. occidentalis) just beginning to 

 flower were noted on the inner tidal flats and scattered plants of the 

 Hare's-foot Trefoil were found amongst the Bent. 



Although no special attention was paid to marine zoology, numerous 

 shells of the sand-dwelhng mollusca were observed belonging chiefly to 

 the genera Solen, Tellina, Mactra, Venus, Tapes, Pccten, and Cardium, 

 Soldi vagina occurring rather frequently amongst the innumerable valves 

 of its much commoner congener, S. siliqna. The party returned to Dublin 

 by tram about 7 o'clock. 



