72 The Irish Naturalist. March, 



G-lyceria festucaeformis in Ireland. 



The discovery of this grass last summer in Co. Down, and the notices 

 of it in the Irish Naturalist for October, 1903, by Mr. Praegtr, and in the 

 Journal of Botany for November, 1903, by Dr. Rendle, are most interesting. 

 Mr. Praeger, who was the lucky finder, is confident that the plant is 

 indigenous to the east shore of Strangford Lough, and he argues that it 

 was impossible for the seeds to have been introduced from the shores of 

 the IMediterranean Sea, which is the nearest place to Ireland where this 

 Glyceria is undoubtedly native. In the interests of science I wish to 

 point out why I am unable to share this view, and why I have much 

 more than a shadow of doubt as to its being indigenous on the shore of 

 Strangford Lough. There are reasons why I think it not only possible 

 but extremely probable that the presence of this grass in Co. Down is 

 due to its introduction by a happy chance at no very remote date. 



It is true, as Mr. Praeger writes, that, '* in the whole of Strangford 

 Lough there is no port where foreign vessels call. The sea-traffic is con- 

 fined to small local boats with cargoes of coal, bricks, and so on." But 

 I am far from thinking that '* the introduction by land is equally out of 

 the question" ; for there is a way by which it was quite possible for the 

 seeds of this Mediterranean shore grass to have got on the shore of 

 Strangford Lough by a land journey of eight miles from the nearest 

 Irish seaport— it occurred to me, when I first heard of Mr. Praeger's 

 discovery, and previous to the publication of his account of it in the 

 Irish Naturalist, and I am surprised how it escaped his experience and 

 acuteness. 



About eight miles straight across the water north-west from the Ards 

 locality for the Glyceria, is the little town of Comber, situated half a mile 

 from the shore of Strangford Lough. It is eight miles by rail from the 

 great sea-port of Belfast, and in it is a well-known old established and 

 flourishing distillery (there are actually two distilleries which have been 

 working since the year 1825), where large quantities of cereals from 

 various sources are from time to time used in the manufacture of 

 whiskey. 



A small stream locally known as the River Inler, or Comber River, runs 

 past these works and supplies them with water, while the tide from 

 Strangford Lough rises to a point in it between the upper and lower 

 distilleries ; and any refuse and sweepings of the lofts from the 

 distillery which may get into the stream are carried by fresh and salt 

 water into Strangford Lough. When this occurred to me, and I reflected 

 that many alien plants are from year to year found growing on waste 

 ground and road-sides near distilleries in other places, the seeds having 

 been imported with foreign grain, I inquired from the manager ol 

 Comber distillery whether grain from a Mediterranean port was ever 

 used by his firm ; and in his reply he informed me that foreign barley 

 had been used in Comber distillery, and that so late as the year 1892 he 

 had a cargo of barley imported via Belfast from Algeria. 



