Botany. 



115 



sub-arctic North America and Kamtschatka. The shores 

 of Lough Neagh also yield a group of plants which are 

 usually maritime: 



Scirpus maritimus. 



S. Taberntemontani. 



Spergularia rupestris. 



Cerastium semidecandrum. 



Cerastium arvense. 

 Viola Curtisii. 

 Erodium cicutarium. 

 Trifolium arvense. 



SHORES OF£LOUGH NEAGH AT SHANES CASTLE. 

 Habitat of Calatnagrostis stricta var. Hookcri. 



The sandy nature of the ground may account for the 

 presence of the last five ; as for the others, when we take 

 into account the northern character of the fauna and flora 

 of the lake, and its low elevation (48 feet), one is tempted 

 to refer their arrival to a period when a depression of the 

 land allowed the sea to enter the basin about the close 

 of the Glacial period. Lough Neagh was also the head- 

 quarters in our district of an interesting group cf marsh and 

 water plants, many of them characteristic of the Central 

 Plain of Ireland, but these have been much interfered with 

 by the lowering of the level of the lake half a century ago. 



