19 1 3. Notes. 8i 
NOTES, 
BOTANY. 
Some Results of the International Phytogeographical Excursion, 
1911. 
Attention should be drawn to a series of articles which have .been 
appearing in the " New Phytologist," 191 1 and 1912, on impressions and 
results of the international meeting. Most of the foreign botanists who 
were present have recorded their impressions or discussed the ecological 
or floristic problems arising from their perambulation of the British 
Isles — H. C. Cowles, F. E. Clements, Jean Massart, C. A. M. Lindman, 
E. A. Riibel, C. H. Ostenfeld, P. von Graebner, Oscar Drude, C. von 
Schroter ; and of the British members of the party, A. G. Tansle5^ G. 
C. Druce, and C. E. Moss have also contributed. Irish vegetation and 
Irish species come in for a certain amount of attention, and in view of 
recent discussion on the origin of the British (and Irish) flora, Professor 
Drude's advocacy of the great age of much of our present flora is of much 
interest. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Adders and Toads introduced into Co. Down. 
Another case, in addition to those well known, of the failure to estabUsh 
an alien fauna in Ireland is given, I find, by the late Dr. James Bryce, of 
Belfast, in his book, " Geology of Arran and Clydesdale." He mentions 
that Mr. Cleland, of Bangor, introduced a number of Adders and Toads in 
his grounds (at Rathgael House, I expect), but that the attempt was not 
a success, as several of the animals were found dead a few months after- 
wards. This was likely Mr. Rose Cleland, so often mentioned by Thompson 
in his Natural History of Ireland, who was also a friend of Patterson, 
Hyndman, Waller, and Gwyn -Jeflreys, and associated with them in the 
many dredging expeditious off our coasts in the middle of last century. 
R. J. Welch. 
Belfast. 
Squacco Heron in Co. Mayo, 
An adult male Squacco Heron {Ardea ralloides Scop.) obtained last 
June near Westport, in Co. Mayo, has recently been acquired for the Col- 
lection of Irish Birds in the National Museum, Dublin. This small heron 
is a very rare casual visitor to Ireland in summer and autumn, and Mr 
Ussher in " The Birds of Ireland " only gives eight records of this species, 
all of which are from southern counties, except one from Londonderry. 
National Museum, Dublin. A. R. Nichols. 
