c8 CProc. B.N.F.C, 



distribution generally and past geological land connections. It 

 may be noted that I visited two of the newly-found Antrim 

 stations late in September with the object of getting specimens in 

 fruit, but most of the plants had then withered off. The few I 

 did procure seemed to be all quite abortive. Whether the 

 exceptional wetness of the season had anything to do with this, 

 by extinguishing the life of the insect by which ordinarily this 

 orchid is pollinated, I cannot say. 



The next plant to be noted is the Wood Bitter Vetch, Vicia 

 Orobus, DC. This is one of our rarest plants. Until last year 

 only one known station for it existed in the North-East, namely, 

 Sallagh Braes, Co. Antrim, where a single plant was discovered in 

 1873 by Mr. Stewart. In 1906, however, Mr. C. J. Lilly found 

 this Vetch growing plentifully on Lower Ballygowan Hill, and 

 also sparingly at two other adjacent localities. In July of the 

 present year I discovered it growing on a shrubby, rocky pasture 

 in the townland of Ballybracken, a little bit east of Ballyboley 

 railway station, at an elevation of about 440 feet. This station is 

 almost two miles south-west of Lower Ballygowan, and six miles 

 south-west of Sallagh Braes. Half-a-dozen plants were noted. I 

 also found it more sparingly on Irish Hill, south of Straid. It 

 occurred here at an elevation of 700 feet, and with gorse and 

 heather as associates. Irish Hill marks an important extension of 

 range, as it is four miles south-west of Ballyboley. 



The two stations here listed for Vicia Orobus yielded other 

 plants of sufficient rarity to merit enumeration, as they have not 

 been recorded therefrom before. On Irish Hill, whose summit is 

 characteristically that of a grassy-heath, I found Gynnadenia 

 conopsea and G. a/bida, both in abundance. Pyrola media also 

 occurred in plenty. At Ballyboley the same three plants grew 

 profusely on the area associated with the Bitter Vetch, as also did 

 Melampyrum pratcnsc ; Antennaria dioica occurred more sparingly. 

 This locality, being near to " the head of the Six-Mile- Water," is 

 probably the "heathy ground" where Templeton, in 1794, found 



