388 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the time of flowering lasting until the fii-st or second week in June. Large 

 three-valved capsules, varying va. shape from pyi-iform to globose, and each con- 

 taining several fertile shiny black seeds, follow the flowering. As the capsules 

 ripen, the scape and leaves fall and soon decay, or are perhaps devoured bj' 

 the snails and slugs that frequent these marshy places ; so that it is ahiiost 

 impossible to distinguish the plant out of the flowering season. The capsules 

 split open when ripe, and the seeds, wliich are quite buoyant, are carried ofl" 

 by the floods and sprmg-tides, and ihstributed here and there among the reeds 

 and bushes that fringe the creeks and river-margins, there to gerimnate and 

 grow. 



It is the \'iew of some botanists that Leucojum aestkmm has possibly been 

 introduced into the Britisli Islands by man — that it may have been planted, 

 or may have escaped from hyiwthetical gardens — a view for wliich no positive 

 cNidence seems to exist We do not intend to tr)' to disprove this ; that would 

 be to trj" to prove a negative ; but we propose to show that the habitat and 

 distribution of the plant on the continent of Europe, where it is admitted to 

 be native, agree with its occurrences in England and Ireland, and that in its 

 principal stations in both these countries, its abundance, its associates, the 

 situations it aflects, and the general conditions under which it grows, are 

 such as to preclude all idea of its being an introduced plant. 



The accompanying map (Plate XX.) has been prepared to show the dis- 

 tribution of Leucojum aativum in Europe. In making it, we have consulted 

 all available continental floras in the National Library of Ireland and 

 elsewhere in Dublin. We have also examined the specimens in the Herbariums 

 at Kew, British Museum, Manchester I^Iuseum, Trinity College, Dublin, and 

 the National Museum of Ireland. A glance at this map will show that the 

 plant occurs in almost every country in Europe. It is found in the Crimea, 

 in the estuary of tlie Dauul>e, in mai-slies and wet jilaces in lloumania, Servia, 

 Bosnia, and Slavonia, countries tlirougli wliicli the Danube flows ; it occurs 

 also on the islands of this river in the kingdom of Hungary, and in wet places 

 in Upper and Lower Austria. In Turkey it grows in Macedonia and Thrace, 

 bordering the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Mamiora, and the Black Sea. It is rare 

 in Greece, being mentioned only, so far as we can find, from swamps and wet 

 marshes in Euboea and on the island of Scopola. It is abundant in the low- 

 Ijnng r^ons of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Camiola. In " Die Vegetationsver- 

 hiiltuisse der illyrischen Lander," 1901, Dr. G. K. Beck von Manuagetta gives 

 a very interesting account of the habitat of the plant in the countries bordering 

 the eastern shores of the Adriatic. All along the coast in the estuary of the 

 Narenta and other rivere there are extensive marshes, which extend inland 

 for some distance, gi-adually i>assii)g from sjill-watcr swamps into frosli-water 



