230 BOTANICAL NOTES ALONG THE RIVERS NORE, RLACKWATER, ETC. 



in fruit. The entrance to Kilkenny is very fine by the river, the 

 Castle of the Ormondes being a most imposing structure. An 

 excellent hotel afforded us a good night's rest. 



On the following morning (Tuesday, July 8th) we left Kilkenny. 

 Senebicni (Jidi/nia was noticed about the town. (J. sanguinea, in 

 the large shrubbery form, is naturalised below the town in several 

 places. Thalictntvi Jiavum, Nastiutium palnstre, and Verbena offici- 

 nalis occurred at Bennett's Bridge. The scenery has become 

 wooded and beautiful. Colchicum autumyiale still occurs. The two 

 commoner Spargani^ims [S. minimum and S. ramosum), Oriyanum, 

 Phalaris, and liuuiex Hydrolapathum were seen to Thomastown on 

 the right bank. Alliitm vineale and Lysimachia vulgaris occurred 

 freely at Mount Juliet, the seat of Lord Carrick. Near this, too, 

 Campanula Trachelium was very plentiful in wet thickets near the 

 river and at its very edge. Between Thomastown and Innistiogue 

 I noted the Campajiula, the large water-dock, Centaurea Scahiosa, 

 Ononis arvensis, Orchis pi/ramidalis, Scahiosa ((rrensis, and Kpiluhium 

 hirsutum as the species of most interest. At Innistiogue we stopped 

 for the night in a most delightfully clean, well- supplied, and 

 prettily- situated inn. 



About Innistiogue, on old ivied walls, Orobanche hcdera is 

 abundant. The great attraction to this little village is the 

 beautiful demesne of Woodstock, at the gate of which it lies. 

 The gardens of Woodstock are famous, and an hour or two were 

 well spent in them under the guidance of a most intelligent Irish 

 gardener. With especial pride he showed us a magnificent 

 Araucaria, over fifty feet high. This, he stated, was the second 

 best in the kingdom, the best being at Dropmore, which was 

 planted a year earlier, the Woodstock one being planted in 1834. 

 As a matter of fact the two oldest in the kingdom date from 1796, 

 one at Kew and the other at Dropmore, the latter being, I believe, 

 the best grown, and about sixty feet high. There is also here a 

 double line of younger Araucaria: (1850), about 300 yards in 

 length, with a grass lane between, under which circumstances they 

 show to peculiar advantage. 



In the woods above the river, on the right bank, Carex pendula, 

 Luzula pilosa, and the wood onion, occurred. Blackcaps were 

 singing in many cases ; they are local birds in Ireland. I met 

 them in a similar and almost as beautiful place by the Barrow, at 

 Borris, the previous year. 



From a little below Woodlands Campanula Tracheluou becomes 

 most abundant, all along the river amongst the coarsest weeds on 

 dykes and embankments, and in tangled thickets at the water's 

 edge to New Boss. I found it very sparingly the previous year near 

 Portarlington, on the Barrow ; the Nore, on which it has been long- 

 known, is its most satisfactory habitat in Ireland. 



From Woodstock to New Boss, along the edge of the Nore on 

 the right bank, is a kind of exploit in pedestrianism which demands 

 some enthralling motive to make it go cheerfully. The river is 

 tidal, and the osier banks and beds of reeds are often intersected 

 by stagnant, sunken courses of slimy water on a bed of " glar." 



