270 The Irish NaUiralist, ^ [Oct., 



him. He has often searched the Sallagh Braes, but as my plant is an old 

 barren one, it was probably overlooked from its habit of creeping close 

 to the ground, and resembling Salix repens. To me it is very satisfactory 

 to be able to verify Mr Templeton's record. 



H. W. Lett (in /oum. Bot, for August). 



[We are not sanguine that the foregoing note will convince Irish bota- 

 nists as to the occurrence of Dryas octopetala in County Antrim. The fact 

 that a plant so striking and distinct was not recognised at the time, but 

 should turn up long afterwards amongst papers admittedly mislaid, does 

 not tend to inspire confidence or conviction. The remark that " as 

 my plant was an old barren one, it was probably overlooked from its 

 habit of creeping close to the ground, and resembling Salix repens"'' strikes 

 one as strange. The resemblance to Salix repms is surely fanciful, and 

 our experience is that old plants do not creep closer to the ground, or 

 flower less than younger ones. It must be noted also that several records 

 credited to Templeton by various writers, but not mentioned in his own 

 notes, have already proved erroneous, Euphorbia hiberna and Chrysosplenium 

 altcrnifoliitm for instance, and that the Sallagh Braes have been well 

 searched by botanists ever since Templeton's time, notably so by the late 

 Dr. Moore. From these considerations the desirability of Mr. Lett's 

 verifying his specimen by the discovery of the plant in sittt is manifest, 

 and while we do not for a moment cast doubt on the bona fide nature of 

 his communication, it appears to us that there are now two records which 

 invite verification— Mr. Templeton's, and Mr. Lett's.— Eds.] 



Carex tcretiuscula, Good., in County Down.— This sedge has 

 just now been re-found, July, 1S96, in a wet sphagnous bog near the 

 Giant's Ring at Ballylesson, Co. Down, which was in all likelihood Orr's 

 original locality, and it is thus a restoration to the county of a plant 

 which was excluded by the authors of Flora N. E. Ireland as not now 

 being found. Indeed, until it was lately discovered at Killelagh Lough 

 in County Derry, by Mrs. Leebody and Mr. Praeger, as recorded in the 

 Supplement to the Flora, it was considered as probably extinct in the 

 north of Ireland. The history of the occurrence of this species in the 

 district, particularly as relating to County Antrim, is amusingly curious. 

 It was believed that there was neither bog nor marsh at or near the 

 Giant's Ring. The habitat in the case of Templeton's locality in County 

 Antrim, given by him as "old moss holes" at Cranmore (which place 

 was for a long time the residence of that careful and indefatigable 

 naturalist) was, in transcription, changed to marl hole, and then from 

 marl hole it was altered, in Flora Hibernica, to the marble hole, Cran- 

 more, and again transformed in Cybele Ilibet-nica to Marble Hall, Carn- 

 money; but nobody seems to be aware of the existence of any Marble 

 Hall at that place or elsewhere in the county, nor is the plant to be found 

 in the neighbourhood of Carnmoney. Possibly it may still exist at Cran- 

 more, but since Templeton's time it does not seem to have been seen 

 there. In conversation with my friend, Mr. Stewart, concerning this 

 species, he told me that, as mentioned in the Flora, he did not know of 



