10 DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



slates. This is very remarkable sometimes, as the grits are only a few 

 inches thick, and, as regards exposure, &e., the slates would seem just as 

 favourable as a habitat. It is worth inquiring whether these plants 

 are " geological" in their distribution or not. 



The district here quoted as Clare River is situated within a few miles 

 'of Newport, and the formation is Old Red Sandstone, which forms a series 

 of extremely picturesque waterfalls, well worthy a visit either by the 

 scenery hunter or the botanist. In a hurried run through the valley under 

 veiy unfavourable circumstances, fourteen species of ferns were ob- 

 served, most of them luxuriantly growing. 



Peofessoe E. W. Smith had listened with much pleasure to Mr. Foot's 

 paper. He had himself met Polypodium phoegopteris in the county of 

 Permanagh, in a similar locality to that mentioned by Mr. Foot ; it was 

 at Sir Arthur Brook's seat. At Valentia he had met a single plant 

 of Asplenium marimmi growing amongmanyof the ordinary forms which 

 was a singular variety. The whole plant is very delicate, its fronds 

 acute and narrow, and the pinnse bipinnate. It was astonishing the 

 number of species of ferns which might be met in a limited district ; in 

 proof of this he had brought to the meeting a list of those which he had 

 collected in a limited area last summer ; it included 27 species : — Sy- 

 menophyUum Tunlridgense, H. Wilsoni, Cystopteris fragilis, C. dentata, 

 Asplenium viride, A. adiantum nigrum^ A. trichomanes, Florence Court, 

 near Enniskillen ; Asplenium ruta muraria, abundant on an old bridge 

 between Brookborough and Tempo ; G. ceterach, on an old wall about 

 two miles from Tempo ; L. oreopteris, L. recurva, Pol. phcegopteris, Cole- 

 brook Deerpark ; L. spinosa, near Brookborough and Tempo ; Lastrea 

 uliginosa, L. rigidiim, vicinity of Brookborough. These three, of which 

 uliginosa is previously unrecorded as Irish, were first found here by 

 himself. Polyp, vulgare, same locality ; Ophioglossum vulgatum, Ardna- 

 shin ; Osmunda rcgalis, islands in Lough Erne ; Scolopendrium vulgare, 

 ditto, var. multifidum, Blechnum horeale, Polyst. angulare, Pol. aculeatum, 

 L. dilatata, L. filix mas {affinis Sf Borreri), Ath. filix fcemina {incisum 

 ^ comexum), Pteris aquilina, all abundant everywhere; Polystichum 

 angulare, var. grandidens, found first by Eev. Mr. Eccles in a ditch on 

 the roadside, half way between Enniskillen and Ballyshannon. 



The following gentlemen were then declared duly elected : 

 Corresponding Member. — James Frazer, Esq., Glasgow. 

 Associate Member. — Charles Brien, Esq. 



The meeting then adjourned to the first Friday in January. 



