52 The Irish Naturalist, March, 
All the reports deal with the flora of both Clare Island 
itself and the neighbouring mainland, except that on the 
Phanerogamia, in which attention is confined to Clare Island 
and the neighbouring islands of Inishturk and Inishbofin. 
In this report a careful comparison is made between the 
flora of the three islands, and the leading points of 
difference between the island flora and that of the adjacent 
mainland are shown. The plant associations of Clare 
Island are described, and a vegetation map in red and blue 
is added. The latter part of the report is occupied with 
a full discussion of the problems of plant -dispersal, especially 
with reference to the flora of Clare Island. The writer 
argues the inefflciency of both water and wind dispersal, and 
gives the results of a series of experiments on the rate 
of fall of pappus -seeds and others specially adapted for 
wind-dispersal. Bird -dispersal he considers to be more 
important than either, but inadequate to account for the 
immigration of the bulk of the flora. 
In Mr. Cotton's report on the Marine Algae, nearly 
half of the space is devoted to ecology. This is pioneer 
work so far as the British Isles are concerned, and is of great 
value. The various associations and societies, their dis- 
tribution, character, and variation are described very fully, 
and the work of Mr. Cotton in the Clare Island district 
places that area on the same footing as the papers of 
Kjellmann, Kylin, Rosenvinge, Borgesen, Joubin, and others 
have done for Scandinavia, Greenland, the Faeroes, and 
Roscoff. The systematic part of the report is singularly 
complete, Mr. Cotton's list of species actually approaching 
to within fifteen species of the previous list for the whole of 
Ireland. The critical notes appended to the list of species 
clear up doubtful points regarding many of the plants 
dealt with. 
Another remarkably extensive list is that of the Fungi, 
by Rea and Hawley, including as it does over 800 species 
from a district most of which is devoid of trees, and greatly 
exposed. The special attention given to critical and to 
minute species has resulted in the addition of nearly three 
hundred species to the Irish list. 
