34 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academ//. 



where its huge poils may easily be mistaken for the fruit of the tree which 

 supports the climber. So far as Dr. Guppy can discover, there are no records 

 of the stranding of Hymenaea seeds on the European shores, although one 

 species, IT. Courharil, is native and widespread in the West Indies and along 

 the neighbouring mainland shores of Central and South America. 



For almost three-quarters of a century literature appears to remain a 

 blank ou the subject of Irish drift seeds. In 1897 the "Irish Naturalist" 

 (vol. vi, page 11.'?), in its report of the Dublin Field Club meeting of 

 Februaiy 9th of that year, records the exhibition by Professor Johnson of 

 specimens of a drift seed, Slitruna 7trens, picked up on the shore of Kilkee, 

 Co. Clare, and sent to him for identification. Two years later Mrs. Emily M. 

 Tatlow records in the same journal (vol. viii, page 236), the finding by her of 

 seeds of Hnlada scandfnt and Cuesidpinia Bonducfllti^ on the Donegal coast at 

 Narin, the seeds having lieen identified by Professor Johnson. 



The last record of Irish drift seed.s appears in in] 7 in Dr. H. B. Guppy 's 

 " Plants, Seeds, and Currents in the West Indies and the Azores," already 

 referred to. On pj^e •■>!. in a chapter dealing with " West Indian Drift on 

 European Shores," he records the finding by the Kev. S. O'Connell in a cave 

 at Kilkee, Co. Clare, of two drift seeds, EiUada ncandcns and Mncuna urens, 

 which were sent for identification to Miss Knowles, of our National Museum. 

 The finding of an Entada l»ean by Miss Knowles hereelf at White Park liay, 

 Co. Antrim, is also rec«riled on the same i>age. 



To sum up thi.s historical survey, a careful seareh through a large body of 

 literuture has established the occurrence on our Atlantic coasts of four sixjcies 

 of tropical drift seeds. Entadn scnndrns, Mncuna urens, Guihndivn Boiulitc, 

 and G. Bonductlh, all conclusively identified, and suggested the probability of 

 the occurrence of the fifth, Ipomoea tuberosa. 



Seeing that our Atlantic coasts are no less? favouralily siluat^l for the 

 reception of oceanic drift than the west coast of Scotland, where the stranding 

 of nine distinct species of tropical seeds or fruits had been placed on record,- it 

 was obvious either that the western beaches of Ireland had been insufficiently 

 explored or that tlie results of such exploration had not Ijeen fully published. 

 So the present writer entei-ed on a course of correspondence with residents on 

 our Atlantic coasts, and in other ways endeavoured to arouse interest in a 

 subject which had not hitheito received a proper share of attention. It soon 

 appeared that one of the seeds, the conspicuous bean of Entada .icandens. was 

 quito well known along our west .Tud norih-wost coasts, though specimens 



' h Bynonym for Ovtinmlina BoruiiieeOn. 



• See Dr. Ouppy's ** Planu, Hceda. and CurrentB," pp. 26-27. 



