1901. 49 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



Elymus arenarius in Co. Dublin. 



The valuable note contributed by Mr. Joseph Meade to last month's 

 issue of this journal has conclusively shown the worthlessness of my 

 recent record for Elymus arenarius in Co. Dublin. Though fully alive to 

 the many possibilities of an accidental introduction of the grass, the 

 thought of a wilful sowing in stiff clay soil of the seeds of a plant having 

 a well-known predilection for loose sands never once entered my mind. 

 So far as our present knowledge goes, Mr. Meade is quite justified in 

 saying that the claims of this grass to be considered native in Co. Dublin 

 seem to be slender. Such a statement would be true of a large number 

 of plants which are yet fully entitled to a place in the county flora ; and 

 it seems not unlikely that further research may strengthen the claims 

 of this particular species. Smith, in the 2nd edition of his English Flora, 

 1828 (vol. i. , p. 177), says of this grass that it rarely flowers on the British 

 coasts and is often overlooked for Arundo {Psamma) arenaria ; and I suspect 

 that barren plants of what appeared to be a robust form of Psamma 

 observed by me last year in wild stations near Portrane and Portmarnock 

 may really belong to Elymus. Mr. Meade's note, while it expunges my 

 recent County Dublin record, at the same time raises the whole question 

 of the standing of Elymus arenarius in Ireland. May it not have been 

 sown as a binder of shifting sands in some of its stations on the coasts of 

 Wexford, Sligo, and Donegal, and may not some reader of this journal 

 be in possession of evidence on this interesting point. 



Nathaniel Coi,gan. 

 Sandycove. 



Carex aquatilis, Wahlb. in County Dublin. 



In June, 1896, while botanizing in Glenasmole I gathered by the shore 

 of the Rathmines waterworks reservoir a peculiar-looking sedge, which 

 after a hasty examination was laid aside as an abnormal form of Carex 

 vulgaris. Four years later, in June, 1900, I visited this locality again and 

 found the sedge still there in no great quantity, but much more luxuriant 

 in growth. Specimens gathered on this last occasion, some of them up 

 to 4 feet in height with lower bracts fully 17 inches long, were sent to 

 Mr. Arthur Bennett for examination, and were pronounced by him to be 

 Carex aquatilis, Wahlb. This boreal species, first added to the Irish flora 

 by Mr. S A. Stewart in 1884, is now on record for no less than nine of 

 our counties, Donegal, Antrim, Tyrone, Cavan, Roscommon, Gal way, 

 Kerry, Meath, and Dublin, and judging from its wide dissemination in 

 Ireland may be expected to occur in a majority of its thirty-two counties. 



Nathaniel Coi^gan, 

 Sandycove. 



