382 Dublin Natural History Society. 
birds. In the selection of these, the greatest attention has been paid 
to the perfection of the plumage ; and by far the greater part of them 
have been preserved by the skilful hand of Mr. Heckford, the So 
ciety’s Conservator. | 
DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
At the usual monthly meeting held on Friday the 4th of December, 
Mr. Allman called attention to a curious parasitic Entozoon discovered 
by him in the abdominal muscles of the Hake. Mr. H. Dombrain 
gave a notice of ornithological rarities which had lately occurred, 
among which four specimens of Jbis falcinellus had been shot during 
the last autumn. Mr. Andrews read an account of a botanical ex- 
cursion through a portion of Clare and Kerry, and as this contained 
several new localities for some rare Irish plants, we add an abstract 
which has been forwarded to us by the author. 
«Having been requested by my friend, Mr. Dombrain, to give a 
sketch of a hurried excursion which I made, in company with my 
friend Mr. Moore, through a portion of Clare and Kerry this autumn, 
I have to beg the indulgence of the meeting for any omissions I may 
make. I can only give a brief outline of our range, and state other 
interesting localities for plants that have been considered rare or not 
frequent in this country. Our steps were first directed to Clare, 
proceeding from Kilrush to Dunbeg, a small village on the coast; 
and we had to regret that the very unfavourable state of the weather 
prevented our making such collection of Algze as the shores of that 
bay so promisingly offered. The Fucus tuberculatus, rare in the 
north, was there abundant, and Cystoseira ericoides, and Chondrus 
norvegicus frequent. In the great bog of Mon Mor, which extends 
over a considerable tract of country,we noticed, in the range between 
Killard and Moyasta, most of the rare bog plants of Connemara: 
the Hriocaulon septangulare in great abundance; Carex filiformis 
and limosa, Rhyncospora fusca, and alba, Alisma natans, Utricularia 
minor and Scutellaria minor, Drosera rotundifolia, longifolia and an- 
glica, Pinguicula lusitanica, this plant appearing more general there, 
and also in Kerry, than the vulgaris. Near Tullaher Lake, the Cen- 
tunculus minimus was found, and in the lake in abundance Hiatine 
hexandra, Eriocaulon septangulare, and Lobelia Dortmanna. Mr, 
Murphy informs me that he has seen the Hriocaulon in Donegal, 
and I have heard of its having been noticed in Kerry; thus esta- 
blishing an interesting connecting link along the western coast of a 
plant that has hitherto been considered limited to Connemara. The 
game remark is applicable to the Asperula cynanchica, this beautiful 
little plant displaying its white rose-tinged flowers, set off by its 
thickly-set dark shining leaves, in great abundance on the sand-hills 
of Dough-mor. It occurs frequently in the limestone district of 
Burrin, and on the sand plains of Ferriter’s Cove and Smerwick 
Harbour in Kerry, and I have no doubt its range may yet be ob- 
served more northerly than Clare. The Viola lutea seemed to be 
confined to a portion of the sand-hills bounding the northern side of 
Screveleen river. Jn our rambles further west, along that narrow 
