J ^4 The Irish Naturalist. September, 1907. 



A good many of the characteristic plants of the places 

 visited were seen by the members, for instance : — Abont Cork 

 City — Senecio squalidus\ Cent ran thus ruber and Sedum album 

 in abundance. At Youglial — Glaucium luteion, Erodium 

 moschatum, Salvia } r erbenaca i Convolvulus Soldanella. At the 

 Gearagh — Elatine hexandra and a curious submerged form of 

 Ranunculus Flammula ; also Carex vesiearia, an addition to 

 the flora of West Cork, detected by Mr. Phillips. At Lough 

 Allua — Saxifraga umbrosa and Pinguicula grandiflora in 

 abundance on the hills ; Lobelia Dortmanna in the lake ; while 

 R. Welch photographed a fine group of Osmunda regalis, 

 five to six feet in height, as seen in the plate. At Aghada a 

 fine Scolopendrium vulgare, var. erispum, was obtained, and 

 hard by at Saleen creek great abundance of A triplex portula- 

 coides was noted . 



Some curious excrescences were noted by the conchologists 

 on pine trees in the woods close to the lake at Blarney, and 

 R. Standen took a specimen home with him for special 

 examination. Mr. Murray of Manchester Museum and he 

 made a section, and frum a careful examination state that it 

 seems to have been caused by a fungus ALcidium elati?iu?n, 

 which attacks the young branches chiefly, but produces 

 globular or barrel-shaped swellings on stems and branches of 

 all ages and on all parts of the trees. They are particularly 

 common on the Silver Fir, Abies pecti?iata. These swellings 

 are allied to the " Witch's brooms " of the Birch, Larch, &c. 



As a preventive measure all ''Witch's brooms" should be 

 cut off before spore-formation takes place (in June and July), 

 and all stems with canker-wounds should be removed during 

 forest thinning. Prof. Weiss, D.Sc, believes that infection 

 takes place on twigs which have just emerged from the bud. 



u 



PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY. 



It is worthy of note that on the foreshore at Aghada, W. H. 

 Patterson picked up a well-formed flint-flake of a moderate 

 size, with the characteristic bulb of percussion and triangular 

 section. 



