I902- The British Association in Belfast. 287 



ROCKALLAND PORCUPINE BANK. 



BV RiCV. W. SPOTSWOOD GREKX, M.A. 



In June, 1896, the author had the rare opportunity of conducting a 

 scientific expedition in the s.s. Granuaile, placed by the Congested Dis- 

 tricts Board of Ireland at the disposal of the Royal Irish Academy for the 

 purpose, to Rockall, the most out-lying speck of the British Islands. It 

 stands on a bank to theN.W. ot Ireland, cutoff from the British plateau 

 by a great abyss of 1,600 fathoms, covered with the globigerina ooze of 

 the ocean depths, into which that plateau suddenly descends, from a 

 depth of 300 fathoms, the edge of the plateau being found to be com- 

 posed, wherever the author has trawled, chiefly of erratic subangular 

 blocks or boulders. Within twenty yards of Rockall they got thirty 

 fathoms of water, and the soundings at a short distance from any of the 

 rocks was seventy fathoms. Some interesting specimens of animal life 

 not belonging to the British fauna were discovered in trawling on the 

 bank. A number of excellent photographs illustrating the appearance 

 of the lonely isle were thrown on the screen. 



SECTION ^.-BOTANY. 

 FORMS OF ERICA TETRALIX FROM CONNEMARA. 



BY PROF. I. BA\%EY BAI.FOUR, F.R.S. 



Professor Balfour gave an exhibition of forms of Erica Tetralix from 

 Connemara, namely, true Tetralix, E. Mackayi, and E. Stuarti, and referred 

 to the new find of E. Crawfordi, at the same time pointing out that a 

 well known garden form— Z Lawsoni— had, so far as he could discover, 

 no history, and that it probably may be found in Connemara along with 

 the others. He desired to direct the attention of Irish botanists to this 

 last form, and also to controvert the statement of Linton in a recent 

 number of the Annals of Scottish Natural History, where he, unaware, as 

 since has been found out, of the careful account by Macfarlane in the 

 Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh many years ago, describes 

 as he thinks for the first time the form Stuarti, and makes it out to be 

 a hybrid oi mediterranea. The question of its being a hybrid was dis- 

 cussed by Macfarlane, and by his observations as well as his (Professor 

 Balfour's) own, he is convinced that there is no mediterranea blocd in 

 Sttiarti, although, as may be seen in the Botanical Society Transactions, 

 he was disposed at first to look for some relationship with mediterranta. 



The communication was illustrated with dried specimens of the plants 

 referred to, and also specimens in spirit. 



Prof. Bower, Rev. C. H. Waddeli., and Prof. Johnson spoke briefly 

 on the paper. 



