August, 1896.] 193 



THK FIEIvD CI.UBS IN CAVAN. 



BY R. I.I.OYD PRAEGE:r, 

 Sec. I. F. C. Union. 



Cavan, according to the programme issued to all members of 

 Irish Field Clubs, was selected for this year's joint excursion, 

 on account of its being a promising county, which was almost 

 unknown to the naturalist. And, indeed, of all the counties of 

 Ulster, Cavan, the most southern, was the one concerning the 

 flora and fauna of which our knowledge was most incomplete. 

 The party which assembled there on July loth, therefore, had 

 before them the pleasure which ever pertains to the examina- 

 tion of comparatively virgin soil, although, on account of the 

 highly cultivated character of the greater part of the district, 

 and the extensive draining that has been carried out, no dis- 

 coveries of a startling nature were anticipated. 



It was a bright morning when we left Dublin and rapidly 

 crossed the level limestone plain to the lake district of West- 

 meath, and thence northwards through undulating ground, 

 and then over the great bog which fills the valley of the 

 Inny, to the rolling Ordovician hillocks of Cavan town. The 

 Belfast party had meanwhile been travelling south-west to 

 join us, and welcomed us on the railway platform, where were 

 also congregated several country members and local friends who 

 had converged towards our rendezvous. Thanks to the joint 

 meetings of the last few years, and the almost constant inter- 

 course betw^een the different Clubs that the Field Club Union 

 has fostered and brought about, the meeting of the Belfast and 

 Dublin parties was no longer a meeting of strangers, as it was 

 on the occasion of the first joint excursion to the Boyne some 

 few years ago, but was more like a meeting of old acquain- 

 tances, pleased with the prospect ofrenewing their friendships. 

 The whole party, in number thirty-six, met without delay at 

 early dinner at the Farnham Arms Hotel, which was head- 

 quarters during our stay, and b}^ 2 o'clock we w^ere mounted 

 in brakes en route for the woods of I^ord Farnham's demesne. 

 The vehicles took us through the deerpark, where under trees 

 the Broad-leaved Helleborine {Epipactis latifolia) grew in 

 luxuriance, and I had the good fortune to spot the Bird's-nest 

 Orchid {Ncottia Nidus-avis) below a great Beech ; the former 



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