272 SPIRANTHES ROMANZOFFIANA IN N. IRELAND, 



R. Pxtrchasii Blox., which Prof. Babington was disposed to place 

 under R. Drejeri, is now, after cultivation by the Rev. W. H. 

 Purchas, considered to be only a state of R. mucronatiis, to which 

 R. Drejeriy when weak and shade-grown, also makes some approach. 

 Dr. Focke has somewhat doubtfully referred to another plant in 

 this section, his R. hypomalaciis (Synops. R. G. 274), an interesting 

 bramble growing in some quantity near Milford, Surrey, and also a 

 Norfolk plant of the Rev. E. F. Linton's. He considers R. hypo- 

 malacus "intermediate between R. plica tus and R. vestitus" The 

 Surrey plant, however, when growing, looked to me just inter- 

 mediate between /?. villicaulis and R. corylifoMus, with the large 

 roundish contiguous pet. and the pan. of the latter, and the angular 

 arching st. and strong prickles of the former. 



(To be continued.) 



SPIRANTHES ROMANZOFFIANA IN THE NORTH 



OF IRELAND. 



By R. Lloyd Pbaeger, B.A., M.R.I.A. 



Ok the 7th of August last, while engaged on the field-work 

 necessary for a paper which I am preparing for the Irish Naturalist 

 on the flora of Co. Armagh, I was crossing an old wet worked-out 

 bog in the northern portion of the county, when I found a single 

 specimen of an orchid that was entirely new to me, and, though 

 unable to name it offhand, I knew that it must be of a species 

 unrecorded from the North of Ireland. An hour's search for further 

 specimens proved fruitless, and I came away with a single root. A 

 glance at the text-books showed me that my plant could be no other 

 than the extremely rare Spiranthes Romanzoffiana (S. gemmipara of 

 Lindley), whose only previously known station in Europe is Ban try 

 Bay, Co. Cork. This determination has now been confirmed by my 

 friend Mr. S. A. Stewart, and by Mr. Arthur Bennett. Three days 

 later I revisited the locality, and a search of a couple of hours 

 resulted in the discovery of a dozen good examples, in full bloom, 

 one of which I forward herewith for the Herbarium of the British 

 Museum. 



The spot where S. Romanzoffiana grows is, as I have said, an old 

 dug-out portion of a peat-bog. The bog is of considerable extent, 

 but, so far as my observations have gone, the plant is confined to 

 an area of a few acres. The ground is hard, wet peat, dotted over 

 with the stumps of the ancient forest that underlies most of our 

 peat-bogs, and intersected with a network of drains and pools. The 

 original level of the ground has been at least six feet higher, but it is 

 evidently many years since; owing to the water-level being reached, 

 the turf-cutters were compelled to seek their fuel elsewhere. Carex 

 flava and C. Goodenmvii are the commonest plants on this area, 

 while a number of plants which are rare locally, such as Drosera 

 anglica y Radiola linoides, Leontodon hirtus, Thalictrum flavum, 



