2" The Irish Naturalist. January, 



has a sandy bottom but withal a treacherous one, for here 

 and there the wader finds himself sinking into unexpected 

 quicksands. The bed of the lake yielded an abundant 

 growth of Char a aspera, Willd., and its variety C. 

 desmacantha,^ H. and J. Groves, both in small compact 

 forms and much encrusted. This, and some small growth 

 of C. fragilis, Desv., was all that I could discover. 

 Immediately east of Rinboy L. lies a lough not named 

 in the Ordnance map and treated seemingly as part of 

 Lough Kinny, with which it is probably united in the 

 winter when the intervening marsh lands are inundated. 

 I gathered that its local name is Tra Lough. This lake has 

 a thick growth of reeds and of Chara vegetation so rank 

 that it w^ould be difficult to make wa\^ in a boat even were 

 the impeding obstacle of rushes removed. The Charas 

 here appeared confined to C. aspera, C. desmacantha, C. 

 hispida,^ Linn, and C. rudis* Braun. L. Kinny close 

 by is of very different character ; its w^ater for the 

 most part is deep and clear with a stony bottom. Only 

 tow^ards its north shore, where it reaches the sand-flats, 

 does it become rank and dense with vegetable growth. 

 Here again C. desmacantha abounds, but in this lake it 

 is a large dark green unencrusted form, very spinous, 

 with long recurved branchlets, looking exceedingly like 

 some forms of C. canescens, Loisel. Besides this form 

 was another with short connivent branchlets and long 

 internodes. The other species which I \^'as able to collect 

 b}^ hand or drag w^ere C. aspera and its var. snbinermis,'^ 

 Kuetz., C. contraria, Kuetz., C. fragilis, and its variety 

 delicatula, Braun. This last grows in great abundance in 

 the stony bed at the south end of the lake — choice little 

 tuft}^ plants some 3-5 inches high, with thick incurved 

 branchlets full of fruit. 



Beyond L. Kinny north-eastward comes a small almost 

 circular lake unnamed in the new half-inch ordnance map. 

 It lies immediately under the little hamlet of Ballylar. 

 Here the drag brought up some specimens of Tolypella, 

 much decayed, w^hich on examination proved to be T. 

 glomerata,* Leonh. An investigation round the shores of 

 the lake revealed other specimens in good condition, 



