1901. Carpenter. — Dublin Maseiim and Irish Naturalists. 161 



interested in zoology into whose possession rare specimens 

 happen to fall, can do much by offering or securing an offer 

 of such to the National Museum instead of letting them go to 

 decay, or be bought up by rapacious private collectors in other 

 countries. Some most valuable and welcome help in this 

 respect has receutly been afforded to the Museum by 

 naturalists both in the north and south of Ireland. 



May the naturalists of Ireland realize then that the 

 collections which they have seen to-day are national property 

 supported by public funds, cared for by public servants. 

 And may one result of this Dublin Conference be that Irish 

 naturalists take an increasing and ever more helpful interest 

 in their own National Museum. 



DITRICHUM VAGINANS, 



A NEW BRITISH MOSS IN IRELAND. 

 BY J. H. DAVIES. 



On a day in April last — 22nd April, 1 901, to be precise--I 

 had the pleasure of gathering on the summit of Colin Mountain 

 a Dicranaceous Moss, with an unfamiliar facies, which proved 

 to be Ditrichum vaginalis, a species new to the British Moss- 

 flora. All that I saw was sterile, and it is hoped that fertile 

 specimens may yet be obtained. 



Colin Mountain, which has an elevation of .only about i,oSo 

 feet, is one of the range of basaltic hills which, beginning near 

 Belfast with Cave Hill (Ben Madigan), extends in a south- 

 westerly direction along the County Antrim side of the broad 

 valley of the Iyagan, and ends a short distance above Iyisburn. 

 From Belfast and Iyisburn it is nearly equidistant. To the 

 northern botanist these hills (none of them of any great 

 altitude), their attractive rocky and -shady glens and stretches 

 of boggy and heathy moorlands are classic ground. 



The plant occurs in several spots, not very far apart, in con- 

 siderable quantity, and grows in densely compacted tufts or 

 patches, in places partly concealed by Polytrichum pilifenun, 

 on bare turfy and stony ground amongst heath. It did not 

 seem to agree with any book description to which I then had 

 access, and failing, after close scrutiny and painstaking 



