[ 199 ] 

 NOTES 



BOTANY. 



Earllness of the Season.— I found the Din.s^le mountains covered 

 with Pinguicula gratidijlora, o\\ Whit Monday, May 22nd. I also found 

 wild Strawberries ripe on the same day, — ErneST H. Bennis, Limerick. 



On June 9th, Meconopsis canibrica was in splendid bloom on the 

 Comeragh mountains. I also found Hy/nenophyllmn tiinbridgense in fruit. 

 Scdiuin rhoiiiola was not in bloom. — ^J. ErnesT Grubb, Carrick-on-Suir. 



The Royal Forest of Clencree. — At a meeting of the Royal 

 vSociety of Antiquaries, recently held in Kilkenny, Mr. Mills read a paper 

 on this subject which had been prepared by Mr. T. P. Lefanue, B.A. 

 From it we learn that as early as the nth century Irish Oak was 

 known, as would be seen by the request of William Rufus for Irish Oak 

 for Westminster Hall. 



As soon as the English had obtained a firm footing in the country a 

 Royal forest was started, and the portion of the country more especially 

 set apart w" as the valley of Glencree. 



In 1244 eighty deer w^ere sent over from the Royal Park at Chester, 

 and the existence of some kind of enclosure was evident. That the deer 

 were watched was plain from the fact that in 1291 a neighbouring abbot 

 was attacked and accused of taking game with "nets and engines," and 

 with "taking beasts and working his will with them to the injury of our 

 Lord the King." From the foregoing springs the question : what kind 

 of deer were introduced .^ the Fallow Deer seems not to have been intro- 

 duced into England at the above date, so we must conclude that Red 

 Deer were sent; that they were very numerous in this country at a very 

 early date, is proved by the frequent "finds" of their bones in large 

 quantities. — ^J. G. Robertson, Dublin. 



ZOOLOGY. 



IN S E C TS. 



Irish Wasps— Vespa arborea, Sm. at Bray. — Mr. R. M. Bar^ 

 rington kindly sent me during May and June a number of queen wasps 

 taken near Bray. The vast majorit}^ proved to be Vespa vulgaris ; there 

 were also twelve specimens of V. riifa, seven of V. norvegica, one of V. syl- 

 vestris, and three of that very scarce form V. arborea, which has hitherto 

 been recorded only from Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Scotland, and 

 Switzerland. My identification has been kindly confirmed by Mr. E. 

 Saunders, who, however, informs me, that he considers it possible that 

 this wasp may be merely an aberration from one of the other species ; its 

 male and w^orker are at present unknown. 



Edgeworth in his paper on "Irish Vespidae" {Proc. N. H. S. Dub. vol. iii. 

 1864), records V. germanua, so that w^e now know all the British species of 

 the family in Ireland, except the Hornet ( V. crabro), which in all proba- 

 bility wdll not be found here.— G. H. Carpenter. 



TiiYiarcha tenebricosa, Fab. in Co. Waterford. — AVhile on a 

 visit to Mr. R. J. Ussher, I had the good fortune to secure a series of this 

 interesting chrysomelid beetle, hitherto unrecorded from Ireland, though 

 it has been taken by Mr. G. Garnett of the Newtown School, near Water- 

 ford. The specimens were taken on sea-cliffs near Stradbally. In Great 

 Britain this species is, I believe, restricted to the southern counties. 

 Irish coleopterists may expect some interesting discoveries when the 

 south coast has been systematically worked. — H. Lyster Jameson. 

 Killencoole, Co. Louth. 



