I900.J Notes. 269 



PHANEROGAMS. 



Elymus arenarius in Co. Dublin. 



While walking south along the railway from Killiney on the 29th 

 September last I unexpectedly came across an abundant growth of this 

 handsome grass in a new locality, about a quarter of a mile north of the 

 Bray river. At this point the line closely skirts the shore, passing along 

 the summit of a drift bank which falls steeply to the sea. Along the 

 edge of this bank, right beside the permanent waj^, the grass spreads for 

 fully 100 3^ards in a luxuriant growth, many of the plants reaching to 

 fully 5 feet in height, with the characteristic flat leaves in some cases 

 I inch wide. Though mostly quite past flowering, here and there a 

 plant appeared in second flower with spikes up to 10 inches in length. 

 The usual habitat of the species; in the British Isles at least, is sandy 

 sea-shores ; here it flourished in rather tenacious drift material of clay 

 and gravel, and in one spot some plants have pushed their way through 

 the joints of the granite facing of the embankment. All the appearances 

 are in favour of this conspicuous species having been long established in 

 this station, and it is certainly remarkable that it should have so long 

 escaped discovery at a point where passenger trains pass almost half- 

 hourly and at a slow rate all the year round. The claim of Elymus 

 arenarius, apparently a rare plant in Ireland, to a place in the Count}* 

 Dublin flora luis hitherto rested on Mr. Hart's record for Skerries, dating 

 from 1S83, The plant still grows there, but much more sparingly than 

 in the station just recorded. 



N. Coi^GAN. 



Dublin. 



The march of Matricaria cliscoidea. 



In the September number of the Irish Naturalist Mr. Colgan and Mr. 

 Praeger put on record the presence of this floral invader in a number of 

 the Irish counties. j\Ir. Praeger tells us that the invasion of Ulster by 

 this alien is now fairly begun, and the burden of my present message is 

 that the invasion is still progressing. That active member of the 

 Botanical Section of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, Mr. Richard 

 Hauna, has shown me a specimen gathered by him, last August, by the 

 "ailway line between Lurgan and Portadown. This occurrence adds 

 Armagh to the list of counties already enumerated. 



S. A. Stewart. 



Belfast. 



Poa compressa again. 



This long neglected Irish grass has been found in still another locality, 

 Mr. Richard Hanua, of Belfast, having gathered it, early in September, 

 on an old wall near Doagh, County Antrim. 



S. A. Stewart. 



Belfast. 



