120 The Irish Naturalist. June, 



HIERACIUM SENKSCENS, BACKH. 

 IN IRELAND. 



BY REV. C. H. WADDEUv, B.D. 



I am glad to be able to report the occurrence of this rare 

 Hawkweed in Ireland. Early last season I spent a day in 

 Toliymore Park, Co. Down, 13th June, 1900. It was rather 

 early for Hawkweeds, and onfy three species were met with 

 coming into flower, Hicracium arge?ite7im y Fr., H. flocculosum , 

 Backh., and H. senescens, Backh. My friend, Mr. S. A. Stewart, 

 named the two former, but did not know the last plant. It was, 

 therefore, sent to the Botanical Exchange Club, and Mr. 

 Hanbury kindly examined it, and says it is undoubtedly H. 

 senescens, and an interesting addition to the Irish Flora. 



This species belongs to the Alpina group of Hawkweeds, the 

 headquarters of which is Scandinavia, and, in these isles, 

 Scotland ; and no member of this group has hitherto been 

 found in Ireland. The group is divided into two sections 

 Alpina gcnuina, smaller plants with solitary heads, and Alpina 

 nigrescentia intermediate between the true alpines and the 

 later groups, and remarkable for the dark pubescence on the 

 heads and peduncles. 



H. sc7iesccns was described first by Backhouse in his Mono- 

 graph, and has not been found out of Scotland, where it grows 

 on alpine cliffs and by mountain streams in six counties — 

 Fife, Perthshire, Inverness, Forfar, Aberdeen, and Dumbarton. 



It is strange that it should have so long escaped notice at 

 Toliymore Park, which has often been visited by botanists. I 

 can only account for the fact by its not being a very con- 

 spicuous species, unless to those well acquainted with the 

 group, and perhaps to its early season of flowering in this 

 sheltered place at a low elevation. 



I collected four plants of it in flower on the Ordovician 

 rocks by the Shimna river in the lower part of the Park, but, 

 not knowing what it was at the time, did not trace out its 

 distribution'further. 



Saintfield, Co. Down. 



