igii- CoLGAN. — Afi Irish Naturalist in. Spain. 5 



the peculiar vegetation growing in the neighbourhood of a 

 high-level inn or Venta, Bowles says : — 



I believe that if a house were to be built and inhabited on the top 

 of the highest and most desert mountain where no plant had ever grown, 

 and if the soil were to be worked up and manured with cattle droppings 

 we should soon see springing up there the plants commonly found in 

 the neighbourhood of villages and in the plains. From this I conclude 

 that it is no good rule for determining the height of various lands to 

 observe generally the plants which grow in each, unless we distinguish 

 the spontaneous plants from those which are not spontaneous ; for if we 

 do not make this distinction the hill of Meudon near Paris will be found 

 to be as lofty as the Pyrenees. 



Bowles has much to say on animal instinct, especially 

 the migratory instinct in birds, and on the importance to 

 the lower animals of their highly developed sense of smell, 

 but there is no space here to quote any of his acute 

 observations and reasonings on these subjects nor to give 

 a rendering of his curious parallel between the manners 

 and customs of the Irish and the Basques. The brief 

 survey of his Introduccion here given will, it is hoped, 

 suffice to show that the work is one of no small interest 

 and value to all who study what may be called the history 

 of Natural History. 



Sandycove, Co. Dublin. 



SOME NEW IRISH WORMS. 



BY R. SOUTHERN, B.SC. 



DoLicHOPLANA FiELDtNi, von Graff. 



1899. V. Graff : Monographic der Turbellarien, ii., p. 533. 



On the 23rd of July, 1909, I received a large Land 

 Planarian from the Orchid House of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Glasnevin. The " Hammer-headed Worm," Placoccphalus 

 kcwense (Mos.), has been frequently found there, but the 

 present worm is quite distinct from this both in colour and 

 in the shape of the head, which is conical, and not broader 

 than the rest of the body. It appeared to be most nearly 

 related to a species called Dolichoplana Fieldeni, described 

 by von Graff {torn, cit.), which has been found in Java, 



