552 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



(I.) AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Plants which are much more plentiful in North America, and for the 

 most part do not occur on the European Continent. These may be 

 considered as the remains of a former land connection with America, 

 and were probably driven southwards during the Glacial Epoch from 

 the shores of Greenland ; at any rate, from the land which, at that time, 

 joined America to Europe ; and these may be held to be more or less 

 Arctic species, as well as Americo-European. 



The best known of these North-Americans is the rare Orchid 

 Sfiiranthes Romanzoviana, which in Europe occurs only in the few 

 scattered localities in the county of Cork near Berehaven, and also in 

 the valley of the Bandon river. 



Another North- American plant is the so-called " Blue-eyed Grass " 

 of Canada (Sisyrhyncktum angustifolium], which grows in great 

 abundance between Woodford and Lough Derg, in Galway, and has 

 recently been found near Milltown and Killorglin, and sparingly in a 

 few other scattered localities in Kerry. A third notable plant of the 

 American group is Juncus tenuis, which Mr. R. W. Scully found in 

 several places along the estuary of the Kenmare river ; a very scarce 

 and local species anywhere in Europe, and in Britain occurring only in 

 Perthshire, in North Wales, and in a single station in Herefordshire. 



The Sisyrhynchium has given much trouble to botanists, for it is 

 difficult to decide whether it should be considered a native i.e., as 

 having reached Ireland before the advent of man or whether it may 

 have spread originally from gardens, as it is a plant which has shown 

 elsewhere extraordinary powers of spreading where it has once been 

 introduced. Still, whatever may be said of this last species, there is no 

 doubt that the " Irish Ladies' Tresses" (Sforanthes Romanzoviana] 

 is truly native ; and the unexpected discovery of a new Irish locality in 

 Armagh lends some support to the theory of its Arctic origin. We may 

 assume that it arrived before or during the Glacial period on two sepa- 

 rate points of Ireland Cork and Armagh both situated not far from 

 the sea-coast. 



One more American species, quite lately observed in Kerry, is 

 Polygonum sagittifolium, which was discovered only two years ago 

 near Cahirdaniel, county Kerry, by Mr. Scully, who has so successfully 

 devoted himself to the study of the Kerry Flora, but he does not consider 

 it a native plant. 



With these may also be classed Naias flexilis, found in Galway and 

 Perthshire, as well as in Carah and Killarney Lakes, and Eriocaulon 

 septangulare, which occurs on the west coast of Ireland from Donegal 

 to Cork. 



So much for the American-Irish plants. 



We have next to enumerate the WESTERN and SOUTH-WESTERN 

 species, which, in the British Isles, find their headquarters in Cork and 

 Kerry, and extend also to the European continent. These are the two 



