November, 1901. 213 



SOME NORTH-EAST IRELAND RUBI. 



BY RKV. W. MOYLE ROGERS, F.L-S. 



As bramble referee for the Watson Botanical Exchange Club, 

 I have had dried specimens of Co. Down Rubi sent to me for 

 annotation annually since 1893, the collectors being the Rev. 

 C. H. Waddell and the Rev. Canon Lett — to both of whom I 

 am very greatly indebted for help given me in the preparation 

 of this paper. The majority of their specimens have caused 

 me little or no difficulty, as they obviously belonged to familiar 

 British forms ; but in all of the packets in recent years there 

 has been no inconsiderable admixture of unfamiliar-looking 

 forms, which I only very gradually learnt to sort with any 

 confidence. I was especially glad, therefore, of an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the living bushes, over a fairly extensive area, 

 under Canon Lett's guidance last July, while his guest for ten 

 days at Aghaderg, near the western border of Co. Down. As 

 we were favoured with exceptionally fine weather, we were 

 able also to explore part of the contiguous north-east corner 

 of Co. Armagh. These notes give the result. I have added 

 brief remarks on some Co. Antrim Rubi, also seen growing in 

 July last — partly by my son, Rev. F. A. Rogers, and partly by 

 myself ; and also a few earlier records for the three counties 

 by other collectors, whose specimens I saw. But I have 

 thought it best not to include the numerous additional records 

 for the three counties, which were published from time to 

 time in the Irish Naturalist and elsewhere, and are now 

 embodied in Mr. Lloyd Praeger's recently issued Irish Topo- 

 graphical Botany. 



For the counties visited I give the comital numbers suggested 

 in Irish Topographical Botany, viz. — 37, Armagh ; 38, Down ; 

 and 39, Antrim. The living bushes were seen by me in every 

 instance in which the locality is not immediately followed by 

 the nsme of the collector. Glynn (near Larne), where I stayed 

 for the few days I spent in Co. Antrim, is but poorly furnished 

 with Rubi ; but the Aghaderg, Banbridge, and Newry neigh- 

 bourhoods (Counties Down and Armagh) are exceedingly rich in 

 distinct forms as in individual bushes. The bushes, however, 

 grow almost exclusively in hedges, and so present special 

 difficulties to the student ; — a circumstance which may to some 



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