310 



The Irish Naturalist. [Dec, 



"Flora N. E- of Ireland" (p. 141), but all these casuals were 

 known to have been introduced with imported grain, and it 

 is not to be seen there now. 



In the Glenmore locality the plant did not appear until late J 

 in June, and its pretty white flowers, w^hich close in the I 

 afternoon, were first seen in the latter part of July. The fruit " 

 of the earliest flowers attains its full growth by the end of 

 August, but does not begin to assume the blackness character- 

 istic of its maturity until about the first week in October. Of 

 the enormous number of berries produced, only comparatively 

 few have time to ripen before the plant dies ; but when it is 

 considered that a single berry contains upwards of sixty seeds 

 (more than three times as many as there are in a berry of its 

 congener 5. Dulcamara), it seems remarkable that, with this 

 possibility of reproduction, the Black Nightshade should be so 

 fitful and inconstant in all its localities. The lower branches 

 are procumbent (rooting at many of the joints), and those of 

 one plant cover a space of about three square yards. A branch 

 bearing the first flowers, that was cut ofl'in July, and placed in a 

 jar of water kept in the open air very soon threw out numerous 

 strong roots, produced fully formed fruit, continued to grow 

 and flourish, and to put forth its flowers until the end of 

 September. Notwithstanding this, it is rather a tender annual, 

 and its leaves, which begin to fade early in October, are killed 

 by the first frost. 



P01.YGONUM SACHAi^iNENSE, Schmidt. — This plant, an her- 

 baceous perennial, native only in the Sachalin Islands,^ and 

 not previously recorded as occurring in Ireland, grows at 

 Lisburn, in waste ground in an extensive enclosure between 

 the old mill-race and the Lagan, where the river and canal 

 are joined, and where there is an old dry dock which is used 

 for the repairing of lighters that ply on the Lagan canal. 

 The dock is mentioned, because, as will afterwards be seen, 

 it seems not unlikely that it may have some bearing on the 

 introduction of the plant to this place, vv^here it is in some 

 abundance, and though with every appearance of having been 

 there for a long time, it was only first recognised at the end of 

 September of the present year. It was found amongst a mass 

 of tall-growing nettles ( Urtica dioica) from which at a short 



■ ' " Polygonum sachalmense, F. Schmidt, ex Maxim. Prim. Fl. Amur. 

 233. — Ins. Sachalin." Index Kewensis. 



