50 The Irish Naturalisl. March, 



NOTES ON THE KERRY FLORA, 1907. 



BY REGINALD W. SCUIXY, F.L-S. 



Sincp: the publication of my last Kerry Notes in the Irish 

 Naturalist, 1904, pp. 77 and 128, several interesting plants 

 have been added to its flora, and the range of others much 

 extended. In addition to these Valeria^ia Mikanii can now 

 be definitely restored to its list. In " Irish Topographical 

 Botan}^ " this plant was recorded on nn- authorit}' as rather 

 frequent in both N. and S. Kerr}', but was withdrawn in my 

 Kerry Notes for 1904, p. 78 ; however, a plant quite agreeing 

 with Syme's form was gathered near Eistow^el in the summer 

 of 1904, so it is probable that this extreme form will be found 

 to occur sparingly elsewhere in the count3\ Mr. G. Claridge 

 Druce's visit to the south and west of Ireland in the autumn of 

 1906 {Ijish Naturalist, 1907, p. 146), added several critical 

 plants to the Kerry flora, such as Rhinanthtis vionticola^ 

 Druce, Polygonum tomentosum, Schrank {P. viaculattivi), 

 Agrostis canina, var. lavis Hackel in litt.. and Kxleria gracilis 

 Pers. ; it also produced an interesting note as to a possible 

 source of introduction for the pricklj^ American Polygommi 

 sagittatuvi, Linn. When first found b}- me in 1889 in what 

 still appears to be its onh' known station in Europe, this 

 plant was shown to ni}^ friend, the late A. G. More, and the 

 locality described to him ; he immediately suggested American 

 grain as its probable source of introduction. Elderlj^ people 

 living in the neighbourhood have told me that the}^ can just 

 recall the existence of a very small mill on the streamlet that 

 flows beside the Polygoniwi locality and enters the sea at 

 Castlecove ; one, however, an old man quite sevent}' years of 

 age, said it had ceased to work before he was old enough to 

 remember things. Whether introduced here in the manner 

 stated by Mr. Druce's informant — the purchase by the owner 

 of this mill of a shipwrecked cargo of American grain— or as 

 I, personally, still think, through the distribution of relief in 

 the shape of Indian corn from the States during the terrible 

 famine period of 1847-48, in either case the plant appears to 

 have existed in this spot for a period of between 60 and 70 

 years. Diftlcult as the introduction of this plant is to account 



