189^.] I'RAICGKR. — Medlcago s'yivestrh hi Ireland. 25 1 



Again, there does not appear to be any reason for supposing 

 the plant to have been introduced in its Irish stations. True, 

 there are scattered cottages near its Portmarnock home; but 

 there is very little cultivation around or near these cottages. 

 The close-cropped mossy grass extends on every hand, and 

 no other introduced plants accompany the Medick. The 

 Malahide station is nearer the influences of agriculture and 

 civilization, but the occurrence of the plant here, in a habitat 

 exactly similar to the Portmarnock one, and at a distance of 

 three and a half miles, is itself an argument against the theory 

 of introduction. Portmarnock has long been known as pro- 

 ductive of alien plants, it is true, but these appear to have 

 their home among the cultivated fields around the head of the 

 Portmarnock inlet, and not among the natural sward at the 

 extremity of the promontory, where several rare native plants, 

 such as Viola hirta, Vicia lathyroides, and Epipactis palustris^ 

 have long been known to flourish. Another plea might be 

 put forward in favour of its introduction — that so large a plant 

 is not likely to have so long escaped notice in localities which 

 have been thoroughly known to botanists for a century past. 

 But as a matter of fact, M, sylvestris, growing stunted among 

 short herbage along with Ono7iis, Trifolium, and other similar- 

 leaved plants, is in reality quite inconspicuous, the more so on 

 account of its sparse and late blossoming ; when it took me 

 three seasons to discover its identity, it appears possible that 

 botanists have overlooked it, or, even if gathered, that it was 

 passed by as an indeterminable fragment of probably a common 

 species. 



When once studied, M. sylveslris may be easily recognised, 

 even in the absence of flower or fruit. The leaflets are smaller 

 and narrower, and the stems thinner, more branched, and 

 much more spreading than in M, saliva^ and the whole plant, 

 even when fully developed (as it appears to never be in its 

 Irish stations, thanks to rabbits and sheep) is smaller than 

 that species. In blossom, the smaller flowers, in shorter 

 racemes, furnish an additional feature, not to mention their 

 peculiar colour when typical. In fruit, the pod, coiled in a 

 single plane or slightly spiral circle, supplies a character that 

 cannot be mistaken. I have not had an opportunity of com* 

 paring it with M. falcata in a living state. 



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