[ 1^3 ] 

 NOTES ON IRISH CHARACE^. 



BY H. AND J. GROVEvS, F.L.S. 



Having received a good deal of promising material from 

 Ireland, we have for some years past been anxious to see some 

 of the plants in their native condition. During last summer 

 we paid our first visit to Ireland with this object. 



Before proceeding to the head-quarters of Chara tome?itosa, 

 the species we most wanted to study, on the kind invitation of 

 Mr. Barrington we paid a short visit to Co. Wicklow, and 

 under his guidance explored the pools and ditches of the 

 Murrough of Wicklow, as well as some of the mountain lakes. 

 In the former locality we collected C. polyaca^itha, unrecorded 

 for the county, though we learn since that it had previoush- 

 been found there by Mr. M'Ardle, and in L<ough Luggala and 

 Ivough Dan we were fortunate enough to get a ver^^ fine form 

 of Nitella gracilis, also new to the county, and one of the 

 rarest British species. 



We next went to Mullingar, and spent a day on Lough 

 Ennell (Belvidere lyake) but were much hindered in dragging 

 by the roughness of the water. We found a considerable 

 quantity of Chara tonientosa, but most of it much incrusted 

 and covered with Algae, a nice little form of C. aspera, and in 

 the deeper parts large patches of Tolypella glomcrata, the last 

 named being new to the county. 



During the rest of our stay in Westmeath we were the 

 guests of Mr. L,evinge, of Knock Drin Castle, who was good 

 enough to place his boats at our service, and himself guided us 

 to the most likely spots for aquatics in Lough Deravaragh, 

 Lough Owel, and the Knock Drin Lakes. In Lough 

 Deravaragh the most important finds were C tomentosa in 

 plenty, and a few scraps of T. glomerata. In Brittas Lough, 

 an artificial lake on the Knock Drin property, which was 

 almost full of Charas, we found some interesting forms of 

 C co?itraria, a very long slender form of C. hispida var. rudis, 

 and immense masses of a very fine form of C. aspera. In the 

 Scraw bog near Lough Owel, to which Mr. Levinge took us 

 to see some fine C. polyacantha and a number of interesting 

 bog plants, we had the good fortune to find Nitella 

 tenuissima, which had not previously been collected in Ireland. 

 It appeared to be somewhat local, as we found it in only three 



