1897.] 259 



GALIUM ERKCTUM, HUBS., AND G. MOLLUGO, 



LINN., IN THE NORTH-EAST OF IRELAND. 



BY J. H. DAVIES. 



In the Irish Naturalist, vol. v., p. 309, there are some notes of 

 mine, in which mention is made of Galium Mo Hugo having 

 been found in a meadow at Glenmore, County Antrim, and 

 in which there is allusion to the fact of the habitat differing 

 from that in which the plant is usually, if not always, met 

 with in England ; and it was conjectured that, at some remote 

 period, it might have been introduced with grass-seed. 



Immediately after reading my notes, my good friend, Mr. 

 William Foggitt, with characteristic kindness, wrote to me 

 stating that he had never known G. Mollugo to grow in a 

 grass field. Certainly, in the sister country, it seems to be 

 distinctly a septal plant, occurring only in hedges and 

 thickets, and G. eredum to be as distinctly a pascual species. 

 In two localities in North Yorkshire, in which my friend had 

 met with the latter, the habitat in both places is ''fields laid 

 down to grass," and in both, the fields had been pasture for 

 many years before the plant had been detected. All the 

 literature of the subject to which I have access is confirmatory 

 as regards the English habitats of the two plants. To cite 

 from county Floras only two examples, out of numerous 

 others which might be adduced, Mr. Druce, in his " Flora of 

 OxfordvShire," has : — 



" G. Mollugo — Septal. Hedges, etc. Common. 



" G. erectum — Pascual. Dry pastures, etc. Rare or other- 

 wise overlooked." 



And Mr. Townsend, in his " Flora of Hampshire," says: — 



" G. Mollugo — Hedges, thickets, borders of woods, etc. 

 Common. 



" G. erectum — Pastures and banks. Very rare." 



