288 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 



OF IRELAND. 



RV R, r.LovD prargp:r. 



The Counties of Down and Antrim form the most easterly part of 

 Ireland, and the portion which most nearly approaches to Scotland. 

 Their combined area is 2,148 square miles, and their flora numbers 820 

 species of Flowering Plants and Vascular Cryptogams, Antrim yielding 

 778 species, Down 752, the total flora of Ireland being reckoned at 1,020 

 species, and the average number occurring in an Irish county, according 

 to present knowledge, at between 630 and 640. Down is formed of 

 slates and granites, Antrim mainly of basalts. Limestone is very 

 sparingly represented, and, while the number of calcifuge plants in the 

 flora is large, the calcicole group is poorly represented. With 

 regard to the types employed by Watson to show distribution in Great 

 Britain, there is in the local flora an almost complete representation 

 of British type plants. English type plants are rather poorly repre- 

 sented, and are more plentiful in the Antrim than in the Down flora. 

 Scottish type plants reach in Antrim their maximum for Ireland ; in 

 Down they are somewhat fewer. Of Highland type species there is 

 a fair representation as compared with other Irish counties of similar 

 character; Antrim, though of less elevation, contains more alpine 

 plants than Down. Germanic plants are extremely few in Ireland, being 

 only thirteen in number, against 103 in England ; of these the district 

 5'ields but four. In Atlantic type plants Down and Antrim are com- 

 paratively rich. Turning to the types of distribution which the 

 author has recently proposed for the Irish flora, the district is 

 naturally very poor in Central type plants, which have largely calcicole 

 and marsh species ; while Mumonian and Connacian species are 

 practically absent. Marginal type plants, on the other hand, are 

 very largely represented, while of Ultonian species Antrim is con- 

 spicuously the focus, Down being considerably poorer. Lageniau plants 

 are only tolerably represented, their focus lying further to the south- 

 ward. As regards rare plants in the flora, Lough Neagh is phyto- 

 logicall}' one of the most interesting spots, not only in the district, but 

 in Ireland. Here Calamagrostis stricta var. Hookeri is endemic ; 

 Tolypella 7vdifica (if the determination be correct) has its only 

 British station ; Carex Buxbaumii has its only other British station in 

 Aberdeenshire ; while Spiranthes Romanzoffiana is, outside the Bann 

 basin, in Europe found only in County Cork. The Antrim basalt 

 plateau yields Saxifraga Hinnlns, Orobanche rubra (in plenty), Equisetutn 

 trachyodon ; while the rarest plants of Down are Elatine Hydropiper and 

 Zannichellia polycarpa. 



Mr. A. G. TansIvEY, M A., congratulated Mr. Praeger on the very 

 interesting and important work which he was doing in Ireland in a fleld 

 which had been very much neglected since Mr. Watson's time. He 



