I900-J 285 



NEW STATIONS FOR RARE PLANTS. 



BY R. IXOYD PRAKGER, B-E. 



The following notes of rare plants would not in the ordinary- 

 course obtain publication in the notes on my own recent field- 

 work ; and they appear to deserve a more extended notice than 

 I can hope to give them in ^' Irish Topographical Botany." 

 Nasturtium sylvestrc, L— Messrs. W. West and W. N. Tetley, of 

 Portora Royal vSchool, informed me last July that they had gathered 

 this at Belleisle, on Lough Erne, where they found a large bed of it ; 

 and they have since forwarded specimens in confirmation of their 

 statement. The plant was recorded by Mackay {Syst. cat. rare planls)in 

 1806, as found on Lough Brne by Dr. Scott ; and the only confirmatory 

 evidence of its existence there lay in an immature specimen gathered 

 at Belleisle by Mr. Harrington (Barrington and Vowell : Report on 

 the Flora of the shores of Lough Ree, 1887), and doubtfully referred 

 to this species. Its occurrence in the northern half of Ireland is now 

 for the first time placed bej^ond doubt. 

 Arabis hirsuta, Scop., var. g'labrata, Syme. — Mr. A. Bennett so 

 names good specimens grown from plants gathered on the Great 

 Island of Aran in 1895 as A. ciliata. Both plants have been recorded 

 from Aran, the latter by Hart (A List of Plants found in the Islands 

 of Aran, 1875), the former in Eng, Bot., ed. 3, L, 168, Rev. B. S. 

 Marshall writes that he considers the common West of Ireland 

 A. hirsuta is not the English A. hirsuta, and suggests that it is^. ciliata, 

 var. hispida, Syme. Between glabrous hirsuta and hispid ciliata there 

 appears to be a good chance of a very pretty muddle, and botanists 

 visiting the West of Ireland would do well to gather a good series of 

 any Arabis they find there, for critical examination. 

 Geranium pusillum, L. — I am glad to be able to record two new 

 stations for this, one of our rarest Irish plants. In June last Mr. 

 Joseph Meade sent me sjDecimeus from cultivated ground at Old 

 Connaught, near Bray, and in the autumn he again sent me living 

 examples from waste ground not far off. 



A doubtful scrap of a Geranium, in the herbarium of Mrs. D. D. 

 Persse, collected a few years ago near Ballinrobe, appeared to belong 

 to this species. ]\Ir. Stanhope Kenn}' kindly revisited the spot last 

 autumn under Mrs. Persse's directions, and sent me therefrom an 

 undoubted specimen of G. pisillu/n. 

 lYIedicag^o sylvcstris, Fries.— (See I.N., v., 249, 1896). On going 

 through the Irish herbarium in the Science and Art Museum I find 

 a specimen of this plant labelled ** Medicago sativa. Portmarnock, 

 September, 1867." The handwriting shows it to be from the 

 herbarium of Rev. H. G. Carroll. A more robust specimen, which I 

 can only refer doubtfully to this species (neither specimen is in fruit) 

 is labelled " Medicago falcata. Sandy fields near Baldoyle ; July, 1846. 

 Ex, herb. Dr. Steele." Another hand has altered the name to sativa. 



