4 o The h ish Naturalist. February, 



also had one previous Lough Ree station. Swampy ground 

 beyond the river yielded Lastrea Thelypteris, growing among 

 Canx filiformis and C. teretiuscula ; though unrecorded by 

 Barrington and Vowell, it has now turned up by the lake in all 

 three counties bordering on it. Close by, Polygonum minus, 

 new to Lough Ree and to District VII., grew abundantly on 

 the peaty lake-shore. I walked round Saint's Island, getting 

 on the western shore Galium Mo lingo and Stachys Betonica, 

 both new to Lough Ree and to District VII. The credit of 

 the latter discovery does not belong to me, as Miss Rosa 

 Smith sent me last year specimens of this rare plant both 

 from Saint's Island in Longford and from the opposite 

 promontory of Noughaval in Westmeath. It is the best 

 addition to the Lough Ree flora which I have to record. I 

 returned by Derrymacar Lough to Bally mahon. A morning 

 stroll up the Inny next day revealed Mercurialis perennis 

 abundant at Newcastle bridge. The Royal Canal north-west 

 of Ballymahon yielded little except Sparganhim affine, new to 

 District VII., and I cycled away to Elfeet Bay on Lough Ree. 

 Here a big haul of light-soil plants, most of them wanted 

 for Longford was made ; Erysimum cheiranthoides, Ononis 

 arvensis, Filago germanica, Convolvuhis arvensis, Valerianella 

 rimosa, Valerianella dentata, Anthemis Co tula, Erigeron acre, 

 Cdlamintha officinalis, Lamium amplexicaule ; most of these 

 are unrecorded from Lough Ree, and the last is new to 

 District VII. There were also many plants of roadsides and 

 old buildings, such as Coronopus Ruellii (common), Hyoscyamus, 

 Verbascum Thapsus, Nepeta Cataria (common). Along the lake 

 shores from Elfeet Castle to Collum Point, where Teucrium 

 Scordium was now in full bloom, the interesting Lough Ree 

 flora was fully developed, and Erigero?i acre was added to the 

 list. From Elfeet Bay my cycling route lay over a cultivated 

 ridge, and then across vast bogs. Several times I stopped 

 and sampled them for Rhynchorpora fusca, which always turned 

 up at once. Longford was reached via Lyneen Bridge. Next 

 day I determined to make an attempt to verify the ancient 

 record of Euphorbia hiberna on Slieve Bane in Roscommon, for 

 which the authority is the MS. catalogue of Patrick Browne, 

 made in 1788, and now in the Linnean Society's library. The 

 station is, on the face of it, rather improbable, and apparently 

 no botanist has ever attempted to prove or disprove it. 



