The Shamrock: an Attempt to Fix its Species. 97 



series of dried specimens to justify any identification based 

 solely on an examination of leaf, and stem, and stipule. So 

 all thirteen specimens were planted and carefully labelled 

 with their places of origin, and flowering some two months 

 later gave the following results : eight of the specimens 

 turned out to be Trifolitim minus of Smith, and the remaining 

 five Trifolinm repe?is of lyinnaeus. Cork, Derry, Wicklow, 

 Queen's Co., Clare, and Wexford declared for Trifolium mi7ius; 

 Ma3^o, Antrim, and Roscommon for Trifolium repe?is, and 

 Armagh and Carlow, each of which had sent two specimens, 

 were divided on the question, one district in each county 

 giving T. repeyis while the other gave T. nmius. 



These results were just such as I had looked for, and I have 

 reason to expect that if the same method of inquiry were to 

 be applied, with the same precautions, to the remaining 

 twenty-one counties of Ireland, the preference shown for 

 T. mi7ius, Sm. would be placed in a much more striking 

 light. From the results just recorded we are at all events 

 fully warranted in drawing this conclusion, that the Trifolium 

 mirius of Smith' has a decidedly stronger claim to be regarded 

 as the Shamrock of modern Ireland, than the Trifolium repens 

 of lyinnseus.^ 



THE COI.EOPTBRA OF THE ARMAGH DISTRICT. 



BY RE^V. W. F. JOHNSON, M.A., F.K.S. 



{Continued from page 78.) 



SII/PHID^. 



Clambus armadillo, De G. — MulHnure, in moss — pretty common. 

 Agathidium laevigatum, Er. — Fairly distributed through the district. 

 A. rotundatum, Gyll. — Palace Demesne, in moss — rare. 

 Anisotoma calcarata, Er. — Mullinure, Dean's Hill, by sweeping and in 



flood-rubbish. 

 A. nigrita, Schmidt. — Mullinure, Lowry's Lough, sweeping— rare. 

 Necropliorus humator, Goeze. — Common throughout district, in dead 



birds, etc. 



* In the earlier stages of the two species an Irish peasant might easily 

 confound T. minus with Medicago lupulina, which has been sold in Dublin 

 as the Shamrock. 



^ As I wrote these lines (May 13th) a fourteenth specimen of Shamrock 

 reached me from lar Connaught, S. Galway, certified by an Irish-speaking 

 native. This specimen, then in flower, proved to be also T. mi?tus, thus 

 giving nine to five in favour of this species. A fortnight later, while 

 in the Aran Isles, Galway Bay, I made inquiries for the true Shamrock 

 from the Irish-speaking islanders. Several of them, searching for the 

 plant in my presence, passed over 7\ repens as too coarse, and though 

 apparently inclined to fix on T. minus, seemed so staggered by the ajp- 

 pearance of its flowers that they gave up the search in the belief that it 

 was too late for the Shamrock. — N. C. 



