1 91 7- Notes. 169 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 

 Magilligan Plants. 



Last July I was glad to find the Yew still existing in Co. Derry. It was 

 found by David Moore in 1835 on the cliffs of Benevenagh, 1000- 1300 

 feet, but had apparently not since been seen in the county. Its existing 

 habitat is on high basaltic cliffs in the townland of Woodtown,]Magilligan, 

 (The area which forms the eastern corner of the great triangle of Magilligan, 

 comprising the townlands of Woodtown, Umbra and Benone, has usually 

 been referred to by botanists as Benone or Umbra, but Benone is properly 

 confined to the flat sandy area north of the railway, while Umbra is the 

 eastern, and Benone the western part of the rising ground which adjoins, 

 extending as far as the top of the cliffs.) Several old Yew-trees grow 

 flat against the face of the rock above the place marked " The Merrick 

 Stone " on the 6-inch Ordnance map, and a smaller bush and a large dead 

 stump were seen near by. The spot may be fixed on the one-inch map 

 as f mile W.S.W. of the summit of Eagle Hill. The elevation is 500-600 

 feet. Save with a rope from the top, the Yew is inaccessible ; but I was 

 able to climb sufficiently near for positive identification. 



Near the base of the same cliff, a little to the right and to the left, 

 and accessible to a climber, are a few bushes of another rare local plant, 

 Pyriis rupicola ; this is, no doubt, Templeton's old station (under P. Aria) 

 " sparingly on Umbra rocks," where it had not been seen again till re- 

 found by Mr. Tomlinson last year, and seen again by him during the same 

 week as my visit. Mr. Tomlinson writes : — " In addition to the isolated 

 but fine specimens on face of the Woodtown clift's, there are half-a-dozen 

 trees growing in the ravine where Meconopsis occurs (see below). They 

 are all on the Woodtown side of the glen, and arch over from the steep 

 side of the ravine. It is strange that wind effects are so noticeable on 

 the plant here, and much less so on the plants of the same species on the 

 cliffs to the west." 



Another local station which will be the better for exact definition is 

 that for Meconopsis camhrica, half a mile north-east of the last. A number 

 of fine plants of it grow on crumbling basaltic rocks on the Woodtown 

 side of the stream which separates the townlands of Woodtown and Umbra, 

 and which may be more conveniently found on the one-inch map as the 

 first streamlet west of Eagle Hill. This is, no doubt, S. A. Brenan's 

 station, " Magilligan Braes" — a very vague term — where it was refound 

 last year by Mr. James Henry ("in a little glen at Benone"), and by 

 Mr. Tomlinson a couple of days before I visited the place. The spot is 

 at about 500 feet elevation, a picturesque gully with a waterfall on its 

 eastern bank, and a wooded glen below. Mr. Tomlinson saw some fine 

 plants also in the bed of the ravine at the foot of the waterfall. 



