Notes. c ^ 



New Hawkwceds from Ireland, in tlic Jaunud of JiuUnn, for 

 September, Mr. F. J. Hanbury, F.L.vS., describes as a new species-//// m- 

 cium hihcrnicum, Hanb. — an interesting plant found by Mr. II. C. Hart 

 first in the Mourne mountains, and subsequently in Donegid, an(b at tlic 

 time, referred to a form of //. arycntuvi. 11. ccnnlhifonnr, Hackli., var. 

 Iiartii, Hanb., is a new variety found by the same energetic botanist on 

 Slieve League, Co. Donegal, and published in Journal of Botany for June, 

 1892. In the December number of the same journal, Mr. Hanbury de- 

 scribes as a new variety—//, fric^il, Htn., var. stnrartii, Hanb.- a plant 

 obtained by Messrs. Stewart and Praeger atTollymore Park, and Hilltown, 

 Co. Down; this form is enumerated in their paper on the Botany of the 

 INIourne mountains, recently read before the Royal Irish Academy, as //. 

 fricsii, var. latifolmm, to which it was at first referred by Mr. Hanbury. 



The Flora of Rathlin Island.— In 18S4 Mr. S. A. vStewart submitted 

 to the Royal Irish Academy a report on the botany of this island, which 

 lies several miles off the coast of Co. Antrim, and is an outlier of the 

 basaltic plateau of the north-east of Ireland. Previous lists of the 

 Rathlin flora had been published by Dr. Marshall {Trans, 11.1. A., 1837) 

 and Miss Gage {Nat. Hist, lievieiv, 1870), both being more or less incom- 

 plete. Perhaps the most important point in Mr, vStewart's report, which in- 

 cluded 318 flowering plants and higher crytogams, was a negative result — 

 the contradiction of Miss Gage's record of Eriocaulon scptangularc. In 1889 

 I added a few plants to Mr. Stewart's list as the result of a three-days' visit 

 to the island in the spring of that year {Proc. B.N.F.C., 1889-90). They were 

 Brassica campcstris, Baphanus raphanistrum, Droscra rotundifolia llonkencja 

 pcploidcs, Gerastium tetrandrum, AUhcviilla arvensis, Buhus idceus, Scandix pectcn- 

 veneris, Aster tripoUum, Veronica serpyllifolia, Fopulus tremula, Luzula viaxima, 

 Sciipus cccspitosus, Carex prcccox, Equisetuvi arvense, E. nuiximum, Lastrca 

 dilatata, Botrychium lunaria, as w'ell as eight others which had certainly 

 been intentionally or accidently introduced. Three other plants — 

 Veronica scutcllata, Beta maritima, and Scilla rerna — which were noted in 

 Miss Gage's list, but not observed by Mr. Stewart, I refound on the 

 island. Last spring a second visit to Rathlin resulted in a few further 

 additions to its flora — Torilis nodosa, * Veronica huxhaumii, V. Jialerifolia, 

 Scirpus lacustris, and Carex disticha. My friend Mr. Stewart has long been 

 of opinion that the Tree Mallow, Bavatera arborca, is an original native of our 

 maritime rocks, and on my second visit to Rathlin I obtained important 

 confirmation of this point. The western and north-western portion of 

 the island is fringed with huge cliffs topped by uncultivated and unin- 

 habited heaths. Several isolated sea-stacks rise out of the water at a 

 distance of some hundreds of feet from the shore. On one of these, a 

 lofty rock called Stackaniskan, about a hundred feet in height, our 

 guide — Paddy Morrison, the professional cliff-climber of Rathlin— pointed 

 out to me a large clump of a tall plant growing in an inaccessible 

 situation near the summit, which, he said, had " a wee pink flower, grew 

 nowhere else on the island, and produced a seed on which the sea-birds 

 fed"— the laststatementbeingpromptly contradicted by hisbrother-in-law, 

 who accompanied us. With the aid of a glass, I made out the mysterious 

 plant to be undoubtedly Lavatcra, and I had no doubt in my own mind 

 that it was perfectly indigenous there, as I do not see how it can have 

 possibly been introduced to such a station— unless the sea-birds carried 

 it ! It grows sparingly also on the cliffs of the island, but I did not 

 observe it in any cottage gardens in Rathlin.— R. Li^oyd Pr.\EGER. 



ZOOLOGY. 



INSECTS. 



Coleoptera at Ardara, Co. Donegal.— I was at Ardara from 

 July 6th till August 12th. I found it a fairly-good locality for Coleoptera 

 There is great diversity of surface ; mountain, lowland, estuary-shore, and 



