October, 1904. ' 225 



A GI.YCERIA HUNT. 



BY R. IvI,OYD PKAEGEJR, B.A., M.R.I. A.. 



During the first week of August last I explored the western 

 and southern shores of Strangford Lough in the hope of meet- 

 ing with Glyceria fesUccceformis^ which I have already recorded 

 as occurring along several miles of the eastern shore of the 

 loughJ and also near Cloghey Baj^ on the Irish Sea littoral^. 

 The western side of Strangford Lough presents a bewilderingly 

 sinuous shore-line, further complicated by an outlying archi- 

 pelago embracing islands of all sizes. To thoroughly examine 

 the sea-margin would occupy a week or a fortnight of steady 

 work ; but in three days of about twenty miles walking a day 

 — not to mention a certain amount of wading and swimming — 

 a fair idea was obtained of its floral capabilities. I began at 

 Comber, and on the first day worked carefully down the 

 Comber River, past Castle Kspie, Ardmillun, and Sketrick, 

 sampling in passing Reagh Island and Mahee Island. Evening 

 found me below Killinchy, without having seen any trace of 

 the plant. Indeed, the monotonous belt of Glyceria maritima^ 

 Carex exte7isa, Siiceda ?nariti7na, Statice rariflora, and so on, 

 was only relieved by CE^ianthe Lachenalii^ Glyceria distaiis^ 

 and Lepturus i7icurvatus at Castle Espie, and, when my eye 

 wandered for a moment from high water mark, by Agrimonia 

 odorata, which grew plentifully among a scrub of Hazel and 

 Brambles at the north end of Reagh Island. 



The second day opened pleasantly with the finding of A tri- 

 plex porhilacoides^ which grew around the head of the bay west 

 of Shamrock Island : a rare plant locally, and hitherto un- 

 known on Strangford Lough. But still no sign of Glyceria 

 festucceformis along the mazy shoreline (though strong-grow- 

 ing G. 7?iaritima occasionally mimicked it), till at length round- 

 ing the long peninsula of Ringhaddy, a small colony of 

 characteristic plants gladdened my sight on the eastern shore 

 north of the old castle. A less well-marked plant occurred on 

 the inner bay near by, by the roadside a quarter of a mile west 

 of Ringhaddy quay : I was on the whole inclined to refer it to 

 G. festuccBformis, and in this Dr. Rendle agrees, but it is not 



^ Irhh Nat., xii,, 255. 1903. ^ Ibid., xiii., 172. 1904. 



A 



