1892-93-] 493 



MacDonald was elected a member of the Club. After a pleasant 

 afternoon the party assembled again at 6.30 at the Junction 

 Station, and returned to Belfast. 



KILLOUGH AND ARDGLASS. 



The tenth and last excursion took place on Saturday, 17th 

 September, when the interesting neighbourhood of Ardglass, 

 recently opened up by the enterprise of the CountyiDown Railway 

 Company, was visited. A party of seventy-five, which swelled 

 to ninety ere their destination was reached, assembled at the 

 railway shortly after ten o'clock, and were soon speeding through 

 the golden harvest fields of County Down, the journey being 

 agreeably varied by the inspection of numerous photos, taken 

 by members on former excursions. Leaving Downpatrick, the 

 new portion of the line was entered upon, and a steep gradient 

 of 1 in 50 brought che train to the summit level, when Bright 

 Castle was seen perched high on a hilltop, and near by, on a 

 lower eminence, a fine earthen rath or fort. An equally steep 

 descent followed, then a mile or two of level, and the train 

 drew up at its destination, and the party lost no time in getting 

 under weigh. Killough Bay was first visited, and its eastern 

 shores explored. Here, in spite of the lateness of the season, 

 the botanists of the party found ample scope for investigation. 

 Several fields were observed gay with the brilliant flowers of 

 the common red poppy (Papaver rhceas), a plant which, 

 though abundant further southward, is extremely rare in the 

 North-East. On a gravelly bank the pretty rest-harrow 

 {Ononis arvensis) was obtained, and in fields adjoining 

 abundance of the field convolvulus ( C. arvensis) and two dead 

 nettles (Lamiicm intermedium and L. amplexicaule). The best 

 finds, however, fell to Mr. Praeger, who obtained the round 

 prickly-headed poppy {P. hybridum) on a roadside, and on 

 walls by the sea the rigid fescue-grass (Festuca rigida), both 

 of these plants being of extreme rarity in the North of Ireland. 



