1907-1908.] 



57 



The Cork station for Spiranthes Romanzoffiana held the field 

 exclusively until 1892, when Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger, discovered a 

 few plants of it in a bog in North Armagh. In the following 

 year Mrs. Leebody found it by the River Bann, near Kilrea, 

 Co. Derry. Six plants were seen by her. A few years 

 later another lady botanist discovered a couple of plants in 

 another locality near Kilrea. Then, in 1901, Mr. William West, 

 F.L.S., found a specimen in Co. Antrim, the locality for which 

 was stated to be " between Antrim and Toome." No further 

 discoveries were made regarding its occurrence and distribution 

 until the present year, when I had the pleasure of finding it 

 growing profusely on certain wet, spongy pastures and marshes, 

 bordering the North shore of Lough Neagh. At one of the 

 stations, practically identical, I understand, with Mr. West's, I 

 counted eighty-eight separate plants in flower, the area occupied 

 being from two to three acres. At another locality, four miles 

 distant from the preceding one, a still larger total of plants in 

 flower was met with, though the area over which they were located 

 was correspondingly greater. A third station was subsequently 

 found on the eastern shore of the Lough, about a couple of miles 

 south of the town of Antrim. Only four plants were seen at the 

 last-mentioned locality ; but the extension of range indicated is 

 most important. It is to be hoped that further investigation will 

 be rewarded by the discovery of additional stations in the Lough 

 Neagh basin. The month of August is decidedly the most hopeful 

 time to prosecute the search. 



The occurrence of this orchid in such plenty at these new 

 stations transfers the known focus of its distribution in Europe 

 from the shores of Bantry Bay to those of Lough Neagh. For, it 

 appears that no botanist ever saw more than three dozen separate 

 plants at the Berehaven locality, and latterly, owing doubtless to 

 the depredations of collectors, it has greatly diminished in quantity. 

 The existence of this orchid in Ireland, under the conditions 

 stated, raises important considerations with reference to plant 



