90 The Irish Naturalist. June, 



to be seen on the line of cliffs from Vico bathing-place to the present 

 southern limit of the species. The extension is not confined to the 

 granite sea cliffs and their capping of drift. Twenty-six full-grown 

 plants were counted on the rock cuttings of the railway beyond Straw - 

 berry Hill in February of this year, and seven others had crossed the 

 Vico Road and established themselves on the gorse-clad slopes within the 

 grounds of Killiney Castle. 



Last summer near the Vico tunnel, where the rail runs right along the 

 top of the steep sea bank, a spark or live coal from a passing engine set 

 lire to a thick grove of the oldest plants, so that hundreds were destroyed. 

 Nevertheless, vigorous seedlings appeared here in profusion in January 

 of the present year, as many as fifty being counted streaming down-hill 

 from the burnt stump of one old plant, while an area of g square feet in 

 another spot yielded sixty seedlings. 



The hybrid 5. albescens {S. Cineraria x 5. Jacobaea) is frequent through- 

 out the range wherever both parent species occur. Two plants were seen 

 on Dalkey Island in 1908 and four in 19 15, and in April of this year a 

 seedling was found at a height of fully 300 feet on the seaward slope of 

 Killiney Hill. As is usual with hybrids, this plant appears in numerous 

 forms presenting many varied shades of pubescence, all of duller tone than 

 the silvery-white of the Mediterranean parent. 



Sandycove. 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



April 23. — Fifty-Fifth Annual Meeting.— ^Previous to the election 

 of A. MI. Cleland as President F. A. Heron occupied the chair. The 

 various reports having been read and adopted, the election of ofhce-bearers 

 for 1918-19 was then proceeded with. The election of six new members 

 of Committee then followed. Suggestions for places to be visited on the 

 summer excursions were placed before the meeting. 



DUBLIN NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



March 14. — The President (J. de W. Hinch) in the chair. There 

 were a number of exhibits b}^ members. The President showed Boulder- 

 clay and marine shells from the Dublin mountain drift deposits ; R. Ll. 

 Praeger, discontinuous variation in Ferns ; N. Colgan, Brazilian 

 species of Eriocaulon ( Pipe- wort ) ; W. I). IIaigh, crystalHnc forms of 

 calcite ; Prof. A. HENR^■, branch of Finns tubercitlata with numerous 

 persistent cones ; A , Williams, copper ore from Beauparc. 



