1883] A Tour in South Wales. 307 



accurate description of the spot had almost prevented the 

 discovery. 



But something else turned up on the headland which 

 was quite unlocked for. Down in a small gully, near the 

 old ruined fort, appeared a little plant, with flowers like 

 Thrift, which on nearer inspection proved to be an Allium. 

 " Come and see this onion," he heard his companion call, 

 and hurried to the spot. " Oh, you have got a good thing! " 

 he exclaimed on seeing it. The onion was Allium sibiri- 

 cum. It had only one previously known British station, 

 in Cornwall, and its discovery gave him the greatest de- 

 light : scarcely much tempered by the " suspicion " to which 

 he confessed in the " Journal of Botany " (from the prox- 

 imity of the old fort), that, as with Allium babingtonii in 

 Ireland, we may here have a " relic of very ancient culti- 

 vation/' This was the prize of the expedition ; but both 

 at St. David's and after leaving it, when Pembroke and a 

 few other places were visited, the botany was on the whole 

 highly gratifying, and the more so since opportunities for 

 outdoor research had of late been so rare. 



He was at St. David's when one of the most melancholy 

 incidents recorded in the annals of Irish botany occurred 

 the drowning, in the waters of Lough Gill, during a sudden 

 squall, of Thomas Hughes Corry, and his companion, Mr. 

 C. Dickson. They had reached Sligo together on the 

 evening of August 8th, intending to complete the previous 

 year's exploration of Ben Bulben, and were drowned about 

 noon on the following day. It was a great shock to all 

 the little circle of Irish botanists. Mr. Barrington, 

 " thunderstruck by seeing Corry's death in the ' Irish 

 Times/ " went at once to Sligo and learned all particulars, 

 of which he wrote Mr. More a full account to Malvern. 

 The news cast a gloom over the summer which had other- 

 wise been so happily spent. 



PEMBROKE, August soth. 



DEAR BARRINGTON, I was exceedingly sorry to hear of the sad 

 fatality which has happened to poor Cony. His is indeed a loss not to 

 be replaced among the few who really care for Irish botany, and a most 

 sad end of his career, when everything promised so well. It was very 

 good and right of you to hurry to the spot. 



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