Progress of Research. 



At the time of its publication, the Flora of the North-East of Ireland 

 j)resented the most detailed account of plant distribution yet published for any 

 part of tliis country. The numerous stations for the rai-er plants which it gave 

 represented the -work of m;iny past and present workers, notably John Tenipleton, 

 David Moore, William Thompson, G. C. Hyudman, Ralph Tate, George Dickie, 

 William Milieu, and F. Whitla. But the great bulk of the material represented 

 S. A. Stewart's own work. He had been collecting information for twenty-five 

 years, and had been exploring the area systematically during the greater portion 

 of that period. His co-editor T. H. Corry was di-owned while botanizing on 

 Lough Gill only a short time after he had joined Stewart in the scheme, which 

 threw more work still upon that indefatigable botanist. Taking into account 

 Stewart's limited time and narrow circumstances, and the fact that he was self- 

 taught in botany as in other things, the Flora is a noble monument to his 

 industry. 



But the district was by no means exhausted. The " Supplement," published 

 seven years later, gives a list of some twenty additions to the Flora, exclusive of 

 some twenty -five Bramble and Hawkweed segregates, and includes many import- 

 ant exten.sions of range. The fact that the number of additions is not larger in 

 spite of active Avork on the part of local botanists shows the thoroughness of 

 Stewjtrt's work. 



Now, thirty-live years have elap?ed since the f'lora was published, and a 

 much greater advance can be recorded. Exclusive of segregates of Rubus, Rosa, 

 and Hieracium, the number of species added to the original Flora is about fifty- 

 flve. Mo.st of these are wholly new discoveries so far as the North-east is con- 

 cerned, but some had been, or were supposed to have been, found previously, 

 but were not admitted to the Fhra on the grounds of being not native nor 

 naturalized, or wrongly named. These additions include some very interesting 

 plants, a few of which deserve special mention. 



Spiranthes Romanznffiana is the most interesting member of our flora. This 

 Orchid, widely .spread in northern North America (and just crossing Behring 

 Straits into Asia) was for eighty-two years (1810-1892) known in Europe only 

 from a limited area of County Cork. Its discovery in Armagh in 1892 has been 

 followed by the finding of numerous other stations around Lough Neagh and on 

 the Upper and Lower Bann ; while confined to the one river system, it is now 

 known to occur in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Derry, Tyrone, and Armagh, 

 and in many of its stations it is [jresent in considerable abundance. 



And just as our area can now claim to pos.sess one of the American plants 

 which give an added interest to the flora of Leland, so it can now also show one 

 of the southern species which are a striking feature of the Irish flora, and whose 

 mingling with the northern plants in the AVest of Ireland forms one of the most 

 remarkable phenomena of European vegetation. The grass Glycena trstncae- 

 formis, found abundantly around Strangford Lough (and also in tlie Shannon 

 estuary) is elsewhere exclusively Mediterranean in its range. 



