ON THE FLORA OF INNISHOWEN, CO. DONEGAL. 49 
From near the brick-kiln at Burnfoot, its eastern limit, the 
Bartsia extends across the fields and partly ae swamps to 
the west of the second embankment (half a mile south of east 
Inch Road) Senge it just crosses; a smal of a mile and two- 
thirds, On the north it is bounded by the Lough Sw willy Railway, 
which it barely crosses a little north of fram foot Station, and along 
which it reaches for about a mile and a half west of Burn oot. To 
Carrownamaddy Meeting-House, and does not appear to cross 
westwards the main road to Inch from Carrownamaddy. The 
whole area over which the plant extends is about a square mile, 
and all of this is land which Rigsticely was below high-water mark. 
Some of this land has never been broken up, and was left t 
Nature after it was reclaimed. On this the Bartsia is not so 
naira on fields which have been cropped it is piegercie! 
abundant. The crops have chiefly been flax and o and the 
land 9 been reclaimed above thirty years. At one aan I was 
inclined to eae that the plant might have been introduced 
with flax, a that seems unreasonable, since the flax-seed comes 
from Belgium or Riga, north, I believe, of the range of the plant, 
and if so introduced, or introduced with any crops, it would 
certainly have appeared as a colonist elsewhere. Flax is a frequent 
crop in Donegal; moreover, the seeds are too small, I think, 
likely to be introduced by any of the usual means by which 
colonists are transported. I have ——— it possible that some of 
the numerous ducks, geese, or waders, which resort here in great 
numbers in the autumn months, may hive touched at Dumbarton 
or in the Clyde estuary on their southerly migration, and _trans- 
ported the capsule ey — of its sticky Sat sepals. This is 
only guesswork, but and others attach importance to this 
very means of disp ace “Leaving such pera se I am still of 
— a hoe lant grew in smaller quantities on the old coast- 
argin, ar it, and has ipsalt far and wide over this so suitable 
an area. em ait occurring now upon ground above the old coast- 
line is not coer important, since places formerly perhaps fit 
for it bas w been much drained, altered, and cultivated, so as to 
drive the unk sictiekeds to its newly-made home. is has he 
neon = Se case with Potamogeton “paren and Ruppia maritima 
eatin of the Bartsia. It will s strange that a con- 
maou Siok plant like the Groen’ species has not been 
recorded before now; it may be thought that this is a proof of its 
recent appearance, but this part of Innishowen does not appear to 
ave been visited by botanists, nor does it look interesting. The 
plant, whatever its origin, does not seem to have spread within the 
last two years, as it oe easily have done, but it is perhaps more 
see eee it grow 
I think, sss interesting, and throw some light on the 
question, if I describe the flora of this reclaimed land. The soil is 
and yields good crops and pasturage, but is imperfectly drained 
* ‘Origin of Species,’ 6th edn., p. 328, et post. 
