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Ihc Irish Naturalist. July, 1904. 



BOTANY 



Botanizing en route (Dublin and Wicklow). 



On the way to Drogheda on June ill thought I saw the blue-gray 

 foliage o{ Elynnts on the east side of the railway cutting just south of the 

 Delvin River. Returning in the evening, a speed of 65 miles an hour 

 made botanizing difficult, but I located a large patch of this grass in the 

 place indicated. As to the standing of the plant here, railway cuttings 

 are always suspicious habitats, but there appears at least no reason for 

 a deliberate planting of the grass at this spot, as at Bray {I.N., x., 20) 

 and the sea-shore, the natural habitat of the species, is close at hand. The 

 Bray colony, it may be noted, is flourishing prodigiously, and displays 

 already (June 8) an abundance of flower-stems. vSlierries is the only other 

 recorded Dublin station for this handsome grass. 



Proceeding by steam tram to Brittas on June 12, Crepis biennis was seen 

 in abundance in several fields of grass be3'ond the Embankment station. 

 This plant was added to the Dublin flora by Mr. Colgan only lately from 

 Killiney [I.N., xi., 184). Later in the same day, the beautiful Viola 

 Ititea was seen in glorious profusion, making the short pastures quite 

 yellow, in fields at Ballyfolan, t\ mile N.B. of Kilbride, Co. Wicklow, 

 and thence it occurred frequentl}- to the county boundary near Brittas 

 and Talbotstown. Lackan, six miles to the S S.W., is the only previously 

 recorded Wicklow station {Recent Add., 1872). On June 19, Saxifraga 

 stellaris was seen in great abundance along the Shankill River from 

 Kilbride camp almost to Cloghleagh Bridge, a distance of over a mile. 

 The range of elevation here is 1,100 to 800 feet. The plant also 

 grows by springs on the hills overlooking Kilbride camp. 



Coming from Wexford in January, I noticed from the train a fine 

 growth of Cladium Mariscns in the Murrough marshes, between Newcastle 

 and Kilcoole. This plant was found on the Murrough — its only Wicklow 

 station — by Dr. Moore some time before 1866 {Cyb. I.), but there does not 

 appear to be any note of its having been seen in the county since. 



R. I,I.OVD Praeger. 

 Dublin. 



OBITUARY. 



CLAUDE W. BUCKLE. 



With the deepest regret, we record the premature death, in the early 

 spring of this year, of one of the most careful and talented entomologists 

 who ever worked in Ireland. During his residence in the Foyle 

 and Belfast districts, Mr. Buckle formed a very large and beautifully 

 mounted collection of beetles and other insects. His two noteworthy 

 papers in this Magazine—*' Beetles Collected in Lough Foyle District," 

 vol. ix., pp. 2-11, and "Entomological Notes from Ulster," vol. xi., pp. 

 40-44— contain over fifty additions to the Irish fauna. His power 

 of discriminating species among the Staphylinidte and other obscure 

 families was wonderful. His early death is a sad loss to Irish zoology. 



