loo The Irish Naturalist. April, 1904 



been used at Comber. I have a guess that some of the barley that has 

 been coming into the British Islands, to the enormous amouiit of 150,000 

 tons per annum, chiefly from Asia Minor and the lyevant, has come to 

 Comber. And this it is which, owing to careless growing and 

 threshing, is the source of the foreign seeds which are everywhere, and 

 which give rise to the multitudes of casuals found about distilleries and 

 malt-houses. 



And though Mr. Praeger mentions only Northern Italy as a place 

 where this plant does grow, Dr. Rendle gives " Taurus " as a locality, 

 and this Taurus I take to be that district of Asia Minor close to the 

 I^evant, in which is the mountain range called Taurus. So much for 

 the argument of no grain coming to this country from a port in a 

 district where the grass grows. I should like to be clear of all doubt 

 before including this plant amongst the natives of Ireland, and this 

 can scarcely be till it is proved that Comber Distillery has never existed ! 



As to Mr. Praeger's sweeping assertion :— " Glyceria festucceformis does 

 not grow in Algeria, nor in Egypt, nor indeed anywhere on the southern 

 shores of the Mediterranean ; and with the failure of this keystone of 

 the arch, where is our hypothesis V 



The keystone is all right— my theory has met with no reverse ; quite 

 the contrary, for Mr. Praeger is woefully wrong here. Now look at 

 these facts. 



In the Flora d' Alger, of Battandier et Trabut, 1884, Glyceria disiajts v. 

 festucceformis is recorded from Batua, Oran, &c., in Algeria ; in Ball's 

 Spicilegium Florae Marocanse, Glyceria festucceformis is recorded from 

 Tangier; and in Post's Flora Syria, Glyceria distans (our plant) is recorded 

 from " Syrian dessert." But as neither Dr. Rendle nor Mr. Praeger 

 refer to these works — especially the first two — it affords me much 

 pleasure to introduce them to their notice. 



Mr. Praeger has pulled down upon his own argument an incubus 

 which neither his boldness nor skilful pen can remove. The crushing 

 demolition of his reply is complete. 



H. W. lyEJTT. 



Loughbrickland. 



The last paragraph of the above note is the only one on which I need 

 comment, as afifecting my statement in the last number of this Journal. 

 The obvious slip which I made regarding the Mediterranean range of 

 G. festucaeformis had already been pointed out to me. This grass does 

 grow, as do many of our native maritime plants, on the southern shores 

 of the Mediterranean. The remainder of Canon I^ett's note seems 

 to me somewhat beside the point. I wish also to correct my reference to 

 a journey across " eight miles of sea." The distance by water from 

 Comber to the nearest point of the plant's range, as at present known, is 

 half as great again — namely, twelve miles. 



R. Li,oYD Praeger. 



Dublin. 



