CoLGAN — Tropical Driff SrrcJx on Irish Alldiilic Couals. 35 



were not often forthcoming. Other less conspicuous seeds have been noticed, 

 too, but the descrii)tions given were too vague in tlie absence of siieeiniens to 

 permit of even conjectuuil idcnlilicaliun. Jn [he case of one ciinvspondunt, 

 however. Miss M. Delaji, (if N'alcntia Island, Cd. Koi'i}-, well known for lier 

 studies in the development of the Medusae, the results obtained were most 

 satisfactory. She kindly placed at my disposal two distinct sets of drift 

 seeds, one of six examples collected on various dates up to 1870 on the 

 beaches of Maghery and off Rutland Island, in AVest Donegal; the other of 

 seven examples collected by her and her sisters on the shores of Valentia 

 Harbour between 1878 and 1916. These collections included no less than five 

 distinct species, of which three, EnUida scandcns, GvAlavdina BonduceUa, and 

 Mucuna [nltissima ?), had been found both in Kerry and Donegal, and two, 

 J Hoc/ea reflexa a,nd Ipomoea tuber osa, in Donegal only. It will be seen that 

 Miss Delap's collections add three species, Jllucuna (cd/issima ?), iJioclca rcfcxa, 

 and Ipomoea tuberom, to the Irish drift seeds previously recorded. Tbe third 

 of these, Ipomoea tuberosa, was probably found on the Galway coast, without 

 being identified, as eai'ly as 1823. 



From another correspondent, the late Eev. W. Spotswood Green, C.B., of 

 West Gove, Caherdaniel, Co. Kerry, retired Chief Inspector of Irish Fisheries' 

 I have received welcome aid as well as keen disappointment. Writing to me 

 on the 1st March, 1917, he says: — "At various times 1 have picked up palm 

 nuts of various species, fronds of palms and pieces of bamboo . . . i have moved 

 house so often that such things as I had collected were periodically aban- 

 doned." These abandoned palm nuts and other drift objects collected b}' a 

 scientific observer who had unrivalled opportunities for inspecting our Atlantic 

 coasts and interviewing west-coast fishermen, would certainly, if preserved, 

 have made important additions to our knowledge of Irish tropical drift. 

 Although Mr. Green could show me no specimens of his own gathering, he 

 kindly undertook to arouse interest in the matter amongst his friends and 

 neighbours. One of tiiese was Mr. Daniel O'Coiniell, D.L., of Derrynane 

 Abbey, and from him I received through Mr. Green on the 8th March, 1917, 

 two specimens — one of Untada scandens, the other of Mueicna nrens, both 

 found some years previously on tiie strand at Derrynane. In 1916 the 

 Entada seeds had Ijeen found again on the same strand, where at one time 

 they came in in considerable numbers and in a germinable condition, as a 

 friend of Miss O'Connell's had sprouted and grown them in a greenhouse. 

 These Entada beans Mr. O'Connell iiad at once recognized when cast up on 

 the Derrynane beach, as he had seen them at Barbadoes in the West Indies 

 when serving in the Navy in his young days. 



From the head of Galway Bay, ]Miss Matilda Eedington, of Kilcoraan, 



