February, 1900.] 23 



THE HEPATIC.E OF ROSS ISLAND, KILEARNEY. 



(Collected for the R.I.A. Flora and Fauna Committee.) 



BY DAVID M'ARDI^K. 



Pi. ATE I. 



Ross Island, with its historic castle, a fortress of about the 

 fourteenth century, is in a beautiful wooded district, eastward 

 about two miles from Killarney town. The deep water-course 

 and drawbridge, which once guarded the entrance to the castle, 

 have disappeared ; and the 150 or more acres, which extend in 

 an erratic manner into Lough Leane, now a form peninsula. It 

 is well wooded and tastefully laid out, well-kept walks leading 

 to places at the lake margin, where the best views of the 

 islands and surrounding woods and mountains are to be 

 obtained. The place is full of interest to the antiquarian. 

 From its sheltered position, &c., it was selected by Mr. G. H. 

 Carpenter and myself as a likely place for rare insects and 

 hepatics in November, 1893 ; and in May last year I spent a 

 day there with the Rev. Canon Lett collecting Hepaticae ; the 

 result of our collecting is in the appended list. 



In 1889 Mr. R. W. Scully, F.E-S-, when collecting Hepaticae 

 at Killarney, visited Ross Island, and among part of his 

 collection which he sent to me I found a small quantity of the 

 rare Lejeunea Rossettiafia, which he collected there. This I 

 sent to my late friend. Dr. Spruce, who verified my name for 

 the plant, which was not in fruit, and I might have passed it 

 over for Lejeunea echinata were it not for an excellent figure 

 and description of Leje2cnea Rossettiana published by Mr. 

 Pearson in the Joicnial of Botaiiy, vol. 27, p. 352, tab. 292, 

 1889. We were fortunate in finding the plant there last May 

 in perfect condition. I am not aware that the ripe capsule, its 

 curious structure and contents, have been seen or described 

 by any writer on these plants. In my endeavour to 

 demonstrate them I have been ably assisted by Mr. W. N. 

 Allen, whose beautiful delineation of these parts, which he 

 drew from the specimens we gathered on Ross Island, renders 

 the task a pleasant one. 



The name w^as given to the plant by an Italian botanist, 

 Professor Massalongo, to perpetuate his friend Dr. Rossetti, 

 who collected it in Italy. In England it is known to grow in 

 two localities — Derbyshire, where it was collected byMr. G. A. 



A 



