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XV. 



KEPORT ON HEPATIC^ COLLECTED AT TORC WATER- 

 FALL, KILLARNEY, IN 1897. By DAVID M'ARDLE, of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, and tlie REV. H. "W. 

 LETT, M. A., Loughbrickland, Co. Down. 



(Plates VIIL AND IX.) 



[Read Decembek 12, 1898.] 



It was a bright morning in September when we arrived at Tore 

 Waterfall, which is on the Owengarriif River, about four miles from 

 Killarney. Our principal object in calling here on our way to the 

 Dingle Peninsula being to endeavour to verify Mr. Holt's record of 

 the beautiful Lejeunea which bears his name, and was stated to be 

 found by him on rocks within the spray of the waterfall, in 1885, 

 where it grew sparingly among mosses, and the larger Hepatics. 



The entrance to the fall is from the Muckross-road through a well 

 wooded glen in the demesne of A. E. K. Herbert, Esq. On account of 

 the exuberance of plant life, the glen has been the resort of many 

 botanists, notably of those interested in Bryology. We followed the 

 river, and admired the splendid specimens of Lastrea and other ferns 

 clothing its banks, or depending from overhanging rocks and crags. 

 We assailed the spray-dashed boulders on which Hepatics love to 

 grow, and we gathered a quantity of fine specimens of the rare Radula 

 voluta which quite covered one of the large rocks, and must be often 

 submerged. Close by, the beautiful Meizgeria hamata, one of the 

 largest of the species which are found in this country, grew as 

 luxuriantly as it does in its home in the tropics. 



Mr. Holt's Lejeunea is far from being plentiful. We found it 

 amongst Trichocolea and Metzgeria, and on a rock which was con- 

 stantly sprayed by the waterfall a patch was conspicuous by the dark 

 green colour and neatly laid strata of its stems and branches. It is a 

 difficult matter to detect the plant until a portion is placed under the 

 lens of a dissecting microscope, then the mode in which it bears the 



