LASTREA FILIX-MAS. 171 
found for the space of half a mile at the foot of Urrisbeg Moun- 
tain, near the town, and was discovered by Mr. Mackay. 
The neighbourhood of Galway is rich in plants: on the 10th 
of last July two young ladies and myself found in a lane leading 
to a bluff, about two miles from the town on the Spiddal road, 
Agrimona Kupatoria, Convolvulus arvensis, Galium verum, Hy- 
pericum Androsemum and perforatum, Lathyrus pratensis, the 
white variety of Centaurea Scabiosa. Ona sloping side of the 
bluff we gathered Orchis bifolia, of which we saw but one plant, 
but several of Ophrys apifera, the beautiful Bee Orchis, and a 
large plot of an aromatic Orchis with a long dense pyramidal 
spike of pale flesh-coloured flowers that perfumed the air with 
their sweetness ; Thymus Serpyllum abounded on the bank, which 
is almost covered in early spring with the blue flowers of the 
rare Gentiana verna. On a smaller bluff we found several plants 
of Dryas octopetala, still displaying their lovely white blossoms, 
late in the year as it was. On the same day we gathered, in a 
boggy heath-field nearer to the town, Drosera rotundifolia, the 
pretty Anagallis tenella, and, in a tuft of furze, a rather uncom- 
mon little fern, Botrychium Lunaria, first discovered in that 
locality by Lady Sarah Le Poer Trench, with its two varieties. 
We saw very fine Narthecium ossifragum and Menziesia poli- 
folia, near the more common but beautiful Erica Tetralix. We 
noticed stunted plants of Osmunda regalis and Hypericum Elodes, 
or Marsh St. John’s-wort. We have lately found Gentiana Ama- 
rella abundantly near the town, within a pleasant distance from 
Dublin, by means of the Great Midland Railway. 

Lastrea Filix-mas. By Gro. B. Woutasron. 
Sir,—Feeling that it might be of some little interest to the 
readers of the ‘ Phytologist’ to know (if they are not already 
aware of the fact) that the spores of Ferns, under a high power 
of the microscope, are almost an unerring diagnostic of a spe- 
cies, I venture with the greatest diffidence, for the first time, 
single-handed, into the battle-field of Pteridology. 
The subject that I now more particularly wish to draw your 
attention to is, the proofs that exist of the sprcrric difference of 
three, at least, of the Vilia-mas group of the genus Lastrea. 
