402 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



state of the water. Among the botanical finds were a few of our 

 rarer plants. The gipseywort (Lycopus europczus) and the lesser 

 water plantain ( Alisma ranunculoides ) may be mentioned ; the 

 loose-stripe ( Lysimachia vulgaris), and Viola palustris (or marsh 

 violet) were found on the marshy shores of Lough Beg and the 

 lesser cudweed (Filago minima) on the shore of Lough Neagh. 

 Most of the happy hunting ground of the botanist for marsh plants 

 was, however, far out under water, and it will be interesting to 

 note the result on the flora of the long submergence which the 

 ground has suffered from this remarkable season. 



A quick run home brought the excursion to a close, the weather 

 having been in every way favourable for field work. 



On 23rd August, to 



THE BLACK MOUNTAIN. 



On Saturday, the 23rd of August, the Society made their 

 fifth excursion for the season, the Black Mountain having been 

 chosen. By arrangement the members met at the principal gate of 

 the Borough Cemetery about half-past two, and proceeded on foot 

 by the Whiterock Road. The weather was everything that 

 could be desired, it being one of those bright, warm, really 

 summer days, which so pleasingly contrast with the more pre- 

 valent, gloomy, and wet weather of the present summer. Reaching 

 the quarries recently opened in the chalk at the base of the hill, 

 a search was made for fossils, but with little success. The lower 

 beds, which contain the most fossiliferous zones, have unfortunately 

 been covered up, and it is only by examining stray blocks that have 

 been consigned to the spoil-bank when opening the quarries that 

 fossils can be found. A very fine specimen of Trochus, with 

 examples of several of the more common forms, were thus 

 obtained, after which the party proceeded a short distance north- 



