114 The Irish Naturalist, [April, 



FIELD CLUB NEWS. 



The Belfast Club have again arranged with Prof. Cole for a course of 

 instruction in practical geology. A course of six three-hour lessons in 

 the examination of rocks will be accompanied by three excursions, and 

 preceded by a public lecture entitled " The Building of Ireland : the 

 Ivandscape and the Ground beneath it." 



On March 2nd and 9th Mr. R. A. Phillips delivered two lectures under 

 the auspices of the Cork Club, the first " On Collecting, Preserving, and 

 Identifying Plants," the second on " Rare and Characteristic Plants of 

 County Cork." Practical lectures of this kind are much to be commended. 



The recent addition of archaeology to the field of work of the Limerick 

 Club has resulted in a surprising influx of new members. In three 

 months the membership has doubled itself, and now stands at close on 

 200. At the commencement of last year it stood at 60. The title of the 

 Society has been slightly altered to suit its wider field : it is now styled 

 " The Limerick and Clare Field Club." 



The following excursions of the Dublin Club are announced : — April, 

 Sugarloaf Mountain ; May, Powerscourt and Douce Mountain ; June, 

 Edenderry ; July, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim (three day excursion in con- 

 junction with Belfast Club) ; August, Kerry bog-slide ; September, Avon- 

 dale Vale of Ovoca. The exact dates will be announced later. 



NOTES. 



The Introduction of Allen Species. 



Allow me to enter a strong protest against some of the editorial remarks 

 on "Ignorance and Introduction" in last month's number of the Irish 

 Naturalist (p. 82). I sincerely hope that no one will be thereby deterred 

 from the attempt to naturalise beautiful or useful plants or animals in 

 Ireland. The Editors do not, I suppose, disapprove of the introduction 

 of foreign timber into our forests, or the fixing of shifting sands by 

 planting grasses which may not be indigenous to the locality. Do they 

 object to beautifying our bogs and marshes by planting foreign heaths 

 which may scatter their seeds and multiply ? Is it a whit more objection- 

 able to increase our very limited stock of a lovely butterfly like Gojiepteryx 

 rhamni, or Vanessa io ? If their strictures go so far I may be permitted 

 to express the hope that the love of beauty and utility will prevail over 



the making of catalogues. 



George V. Hart. 



We thank Dr. Hart for his courteous note and the opportunity which 

 it affords us of stating our position on the subject more definitely. Our 

 remarks were particularly directed against the introduction of common 

 British species, absent from Ireland or whose range here is restricted to 



