322 The Irish Naturalist. October, 



The species had previously been reported from Co. Antrim. It is 

 recorded in Professor Dickie's Flora of Ulster (1864) and in Cybele Hibernica 

 (1866), but as it has never been refound in that county, and has been 

 considered, by various authors, as restricted to limestone regions, the 

 records have been discredited. In Flora of the North-East of Ireland 'it is 

 placed in the list of plants excluded, with the remark, "Only to be 

 looked for on limestone. The plants found at Belfast and Rathlin were 

 G. saxatile, and there can be little doubt that those at Fair Head and 

 Lurigedan were the same." Of these localities the two last named were 

 given on the authority of Dr. Moore. The authors of Cybele Hibernica, 

 2nd ed., accepting this opinion, have also excluded it from District XII. ; 

 Mr. Praeger, in Irish Topographical Botany, disposing of these County 

 Antrim records with the observation, " On the western limestones 

 only." 



Since the introduction into Irish botanical writings of the terms " calci- 

 cole " and " calcifuge " there seems to have been an increasing tendency 

 unduly to magnify the distributional influence of the chemical composi- 

 tion of limestone, and to take but little account of the importance of 

 that of the dryness of the rock. 



Thus our plant — aforetime classed as a subxerophilous species — has, so 

 to speak, not been permitted the liberty of seeking a dwelling-place on 

 the dry basaltic cliffs of County Antrim. 



It was almost unthinkable that a botanist so acute and so careful as 

 the late Dr. David Moore could have mistaken G. saxatile for G. sylveslre, 

 and it has at length been ascertained that there is a specimen to vouch 

 his records, the specimen being labelled in Dr. Moore's handwriting 

 " G. pusillum. [=G. sylvestre.~] Rare. Observed near Fair Head and on 

 Lurigedan Mtn., near Cushendall, July, 1836." This was very obligingly 

 traced out for me by Mr. David M'Ardle, and is contained in the collec- 

 tion made by Dr. Moore, when, in 1836, he was associated as botanist 

 with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, which collection is now in the 

 herbarium of the Dublin Science and Art Museum. Miss Knowles, who 

 has carefully examined the specimen^ gives me assurance that, as was to 

 be anticipated, there is no foundation whatever for the suspicion of 

 erroneous identification. That being so, its claim for restoration to the 

 flora of Co. Antrim I think cannot be set aside. Very probably it will 

 yet be refound in that county. 



It is to be said that the identification of the plant from Co. Down 

 has been verified by competent botanists, one of whom, the veteran S. 

 A. Stewart, A.L-S., the first to reject the plant on the grounds above 

 stated, writes : '" I have compared your Galium with specimens and 

 descriptions, and have no doubt that it is true G. sylvestre." 



J. H. Davies. 

 Lenaderg, Co. Down. 



