t 43 ] 

 NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



PHANEROGAMS. 



Artemisia Stelleriana in Co. Dublin. — In the Journal of Botany 

 for January, Mr. N. Colgan records the finding of this handsome plant 

 on the North Bull by Mr. C. B. Moffat. The plant grows in scattered 

 patches among the sandhills, and appears quite naturalized. It is a native 

 of Kamtschatka. 



Fall of Leaf of the Holly. — It is worth noting as an effect of last 

 year's unusually long summer, that all the Hollies that I have observed 

 or heard of in this part of Co. Down and the adjoining districts of Co. 

 Armagh, let fall their old leaves of 1892 growth at the end of November and 

 beginning of December, 1893. April is the month when this evergreen 

 in ordinary seasons performs this change of leaf, so that what I have just 

 noticed has taken place nearly five months before the regular time of 

 the fall of the leaf of this shrub. — H. W. LETT, Loughbrickland. 



County Dublin Flora. — On looking over the "Notes on the Dublin 

 Flora " which appeared in last month's issue of this Journal, it occurred 

 to me that some readers might be in danger of so misconstruing cer- 

 tain passages in the paper as to carry away an impression that I was 

 averse to receiving aid from other botanists in the work of preparing 

 a county Flora. To prevent any such misrepresentation, which, I am 

 sure, my friend, the writer of the recent notes, is quite as anxious to 

 guard against as I am myself, I take this opportunity of once more ex- 

 pressing my desire to receive any information likely to throw light either 

 on the history or on the actual state of the Co. Dublin flora. Before 

 the close of last year I had received assurances of aid from almost every 

 botanist who has paid special attention to the Co. Dublin. These willing 

 helpers are, I know, content to await full acknowledgement, at the 

 proper time and in the proper place, for the assistance they have already 

 given me, and will, I am confident, continue to give me. For them, such 

 a notice as this is superfluous. There are others, however, and perhaps, 

 not a few, who while they have made no special study of the Dublin flora, 

 may, nevertheless, have made some casual observations of interest ; and 

 it is to ensure the collection of such occasional memoranda that I have 

 requested the editors to grant me space for these few words. — Nathaniel 

 Coegan, Dublin. 



ZOOLOGY. 



R TIFE RS. 

 IVlelicerta ringens. — In one of my aquariums I have at present an 

 immense generation of. Melicerta ringens of all stages of growth, from the 

 young ones busy laying the foundation-stones of their tubes, to very full- 

 grown tubes of unusual length. The thing, however, which I wish to 

 note is that sometimes one tube is seated upon another in almost every 

 variety of order from clusters oftwo up to clusters of seven. I have never seen 

 anything like this before in the case of Melicerta ringens. They seem to be 

 breeding very rapidly, for on a plant of Ranunculus aquatilis, which in 

 a beautiful arborescent growth fills the aquarium, they are abundant. 

 I think this clustered condition of the tubes arises from the fact that 

 there are no quick-moving creatures in the aquarium, such as water- 

 boatmen or water-beetles, to make a stir in the water, and the eggs being 

 extended in this motionless pool are not floated away to a new site, but 

 get attached to the side of the parent tube and proceed to build there ; 

 and so we find them as I have described. To see Melicerta ringens^ at work, 

 building and dining at the same time, is always an interesting sight ; but 



