HAUTE — ON FEKNS IN CO. DONEGAL. 249 



inches thick of Old Red Sandstone grit, while avoiding the slate rocks 

 near it. The next place I met H. Tunbridgense was close to my resi- 

 dence in the wood at Drumhalla, west side of the road from Rathmul- 

 len to Fannet — aspect, westerly; elevation, 100 feet. It has not the 

 grit of the yellow sandstone here, but it grows on a quartz rock of the 

 metaraorphic series, which is in no way different from the ordinary 

 yellow sandstone, except in being " altered," and Lastrea recurva also 

 grows in the greatest luxuriance with it. 



Hymenophyllum Wilsoni — I have not met with until I did so in 

 the last locality, where it grows abundantly with the other form. 



Asplenium viride — In the same locality at Lough Eske, as Cystopteris 

 fragilis — rare. 



Polystichum lonchitis. — On the banks of the Clady River, near Lough 

 Eske, joints of the lower limestone rock. 



Osmitnda regalis. — This Fern grows commonly and luxuriantly on the 

 western side of the central mountain range, chiefly along low-lying 

 rivulets, where the gravel from the primary rocks mixes with the peaty 

 soil. As you ascend higher, it becomes more stunted in growth, and at 

 last almost totally disappears ; nor do we scarcely meet it again in the 

 central or more eastern parts until we ai'rive at the western shore, and 

 near the mouth of Lough Svvilly, where it flourishes along with Asple- 

 nium marinum on the face of the quartz rock cliffs at Carablagh. Pro- 

 fessor Kinahan observes, in the paper I have quoted* — "The nature of 

 the soil or rock on which the plants grow is but of little moment." 

 And great as the weight of any assertion coming from so eminent an 

 authority is, I apprehend that it is open to considerable modification. 

 I believe, while not thinking that rocks or soil are everything, that 

 some of the foregoing facts show them to be (at least within certain 

 limits) of very great importance as regards certain Ferns ; and the 

 observations or records of Mr. Foot upon the same subject, as re- 

 gards the more southern portion of the island, seem to me to be confirma- 

 tory of this. 



I need only add, in addition to the foregoing, that the country is ex- 

 ceedingly rich in all the more ordinary species of Ferns, of which, how- 

 ever, 1 do not propose to give a list here. 



Dr. Moore observed that the fronds of the Cystopteris referred to 

 by Mr. H arte possessed a great deal of interest, especially the small 

 one which he mentioned, which was not quarter the size of the ordi- 

 nary, and was of a remarkable and apparently distinct form. It was 

 in full fruit, and if it should hold good would certainly be a distinct 

 variety. 



Mr. Harte said it was no larger in the third year than the first in 

 which he got it. 



* " Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Dublin," vol. iii., p. 98. 

 2 M 



