1911. Notes 135 



NOTES. 



BOTA.NY. 

 Two Parasitic Fungi new to Ireland. 



On the 26th of May, 191 1, duriiig a field excursion with the students, 

 to Portmarnock, I obtained specimens of Planiago major with a fungus 

 forming spots on the under side of the leaves. This on examination 

 proved to be Peronospora alta, Fuckel, and has not previously been found 

 in Ireland. 



On Whit Monday (5th June. 191 1) during a visit to the Earl of 

 Drogheda's demesne at Moore Abbey, I observed the leaves of Rhamnus 

 catharticus, which is here quite common, infested with the cluster-cup 

 stage of a fungus. This was Puccinia coronifcra, Klebahn, and like the 



preceding is an addition to the Irish Flora. 



J. Adams. 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



Extinction of Cryptogams in Ireland. 



In the Transactions of the South-eastern Union of Scientific Societies 

 appears a long paper by A. R. Harwood on the extinction of Cryptogamic 

 Plants, to which is appended a " Report upon the Extinction of Crypto- 

 gams in Ireland." This report is not the result of personal investigation, 

 and indeed from its perusal we cannot find that the author has ever been 

 in Ireland ; it consists of a series of quotations from the opinions of 

 correspondents, some of whom are botanists, and some of whom are not, 

 on the condition of various parts of the country as regards increase or 

 decrease in their cryptogamic flora. The body of evidence is of mis- 

 cellaneous character and unequal value, and in the absence of any com- 

 mentary or summary by an editor well acquainted with the districts of 

 which it treats and the conditions prevailing there, it cannot claim much 

 scientific value. 



Saxifraga nivalis in Co. Sligo. 



Miss Lily Crofton sends me a tlowering plant of Saxifraga )iiva!is from 

 its old station near Annacoona on the Ben Bulben range. She writes : — 

 " Miss Wynne found the Saxifrage growing plentifully in the rocks just 

 along the top. We found dozens of plants." Considering the care 

 with whicli Messrs. Barrington and Vowell explored this station in 1884, 

 and the small number of plants seen by them (" about 30 plants in one 

 place near Annacoona " — which place, I understand, was a precipitous 

 gully) — it would appear that this rare plant is on the increase in its only 

 Irish station. 



R. Lloyd Praeger. 

 Dublin. 



