31 



Clifden, Eoundstone, Ballinasloe, and Portumna. While pro- 

 ceeding on the railway to Galway, a list was made of the rare 

 plants occurring in that county, which might be expected to be 

 found in flower at that season. This list included thirty-three 

 species. Specimens were shown to the members present, of four- 

 teen of these plants, none of the remaining nineteen having been 

 met with in this very hurried search. This most Westerly por- 

 tion of the British islands has for a long period excited very 

 great interest amongst naturalists ; and in accounting for this 

 interest, a brief sketch was given of the peculiar plants found 

 there. 



The "Run" had included an unsuccessful search for two 

 species that have been lately added to the lists of British plants 

 on the strength of specimens found at Portumna and Woodford. 

 These plants — the Willow -Leaved Inula (Inula salicina) and the 

 "Blue Grass" of North America (Sisyrincliium anceps) — appear 

 to be of great rarity in the very restricted area in which they 

 occur. Mr. Stewart was not satisfied with the evidence on which 

 the plants in question had been admitted as indigenous, and thought 

 it probable that both had been accidentally introduced, and had 

 taken a slight hold on the soil. As to the Inula, it must be an 

 exceedingly scarce plant. A whole day's search at Portumna did 

 not suffice to procure a single specimen. The Sisyrincliium is a 

 rather frequent plant of the Northern States of America, and it 

 is not at all surprising that some American plants should acci- 

 dentally be introduced and propagate here, seeing that the 

 channels of communication between the two countries are so 

 numerous. The North American flora contains many European 

 species that have been casually introduced by emigrants, and per 

 contra, we may expect to receive in exchange some American 

 plants brought by returning emigrants. That the Sisyrincliium 

 originated in Ireland by this means was more probable than the 

 supposition that it was an ancient native that for ages had 

 escaped the prying eyes of Irish and of British botanists. In 

 accounting for the occurrence in the West of Ireland of an 

 isolated group of plants that belong to the flora of the South- 

 West of Europe, the reader accepted the theory of the late Pro- 

 fessor Edward Forbes. Those who believe with Forbes hold that 

 in times — pre-historic, but geologically speaking, recent— the 



