i897-i Notes, 301 



Ballycastle (Co. Antrim) Plants. 



During the Field Club excursion to Ballycastle, Prof. Carr and I spent 

 a few hours on the moors west of Ballycastle ; and this not being portion 

 of the excursion proper, one or two plants found there were not reported 

 in the account of the excursion (atite, pp. 216-18). For Carum verticillattim 

 we discovered a third station in the North of Ireland. It grows abund- 

 antly over a limited area of wet moor a hundred yards on the north side 

 of the Bushmills road at Carnsampson, 400 feet elevation. At the same 

 place grew Listera cordata, and we noted the enormous profusion of 

 Habenaria bifolia as compared with H. chloroleiica — this feature was noted 

 over all the ground visited during the three days of the excursion. A few 

 otherplants collected on the excursion escaped record. Potentilla procumbens 

 was noted in several places east, west, and south of Ballycastle. Atriplex 

 lachiiata was gathered at Whitepark Bay ; Myosotis repetis at Murlough ; 

 and climbing down a chasm on the summit of Fair Head, to escape a 

 heavy shower, I found Hymenophylhan IVilsoni growing at the bottom of 

 it. 



R. L1.0YD Praf,ger. 



«' Open-AIr Studies In Botany." 



As a constant reader of the Irish Naturalist, I desire to say two words 

 on Prof. Carr's review of Praeger's " Open-Air Studies in Botany," The 

 reviewer remarks, " in passing, that ' calyxes ' as the plural of ' calyx ' is 

 scarcely preferable to the more usual ' calices.' " This is hypercritical, 

 and, moreover, inaccurate ; if Mr. Carr will pledge himself to speak of 

 stamina and corollce^ he may invite authors to use calices also ; but then he 

 must use calix, with an z, not calyx with^aj, for the outer whorl ; the y is 

 due to the early printers misunderstanding the tailed z's of the mediaeval 

 scribes, and has no place in a Latin word ; if he wants to go to the Greek 

 he must write cylix. 



Again, he writes, '• it is a pity that Mr. Praeger should 



have perpetuated the fanciful account given by Kerner of the function 

 of the scale-leaves in Lathrcca. The researches of Groom and others have 

 shown that the glands on the epidermal lining of the pocket-shaped 

 cavities are not absorptive organs at all. " Now these researches of Groom 

 were published in the " Annals of Botany," for vSeptember, 1897 ; the 

 " others " referred to I find from the postscript to Groom's paper, published 

 in the Jalu-bikher f. wiss. Bot. (heft 4), and Flora (heft 3), both of the 

 present year. Mr. Praeger's book was published in August, 1897 ; 

 and it is hardly worth while for a critic to express such regret. Did he 

 wish that the author, instead of following the best existing authority, 

 should play the part of prophet, or delay indefinitely what, on the very 

 face of the review (I have not read the book) appears to be an excellent 

 and timely publication, until every fact in Botany is placed above doubt. 



Marcus Hartog. 



