1913-1914.] g 



Report of the Botanical Section. 



Three monthly meetings in connection with this Section were 

 held during the Winter Session ; these were all well attended by 

 our members, and a very keen interest was taken in the subjects 

 brought forward for consideration. 



The first meeting was held on 3rd December, when a paper 

 was read by our Chairman (Rev. C. H. Waddell, M.A., B.D., 

 M.R.I. A.) on " Botanical Notes for 1913," together with general 

 notes on the association of sand-loving plants which is so well 

 represented on the sand-hills of Portstewart and Magilligan. 



Erythraa littoralis, which had been recorded several times 

 from the coast of N.E. Ireland, but not admitted into our Floras, 

 was found at Portstewart, as well as the dwarf var. capitatum of 

 E. Centaureum. Magilligan sand-hills and the sandy fields inland 

 support a very interesting association of Mosses and Seed-plants. 

 Several additions were made to the rare species collected there on 

 previous occasions, Hypniim elodes, Leptobryum pyriforme, and 

 Swartzia indinata, the latter closely associated (as it is at 

 South port) with Catoscopium in a few marshy sandy spots. 



All the factors which cause the richness of this sand-hill flora 

 were fully explained, and some very remarkable forms of plants 

 were described. 



The next meeting was held on 25th February, when a very 

 important and instructive paper was read by Mr. S. A. Bennett, 

 B.A., B.Sc, on " The British Distribution of some of our rarer 

 North of Ireland Plants." The plants dealt with were Dry as 

 octopetala, Andromeda Polifo/ia, Meracrialis perennis, Mertcnsia 

 maritima, Euphorbia portlandica, and Crambe maritima. Dryas 

 odopetala was cited as an example of the scattered type of 

 distribution characteristic of the Arctic plants of the British Isles, 

 and it was suggested that plants such as this, must have occupied 

 their present stations since the close of the Ice Period, if not 

 longer. 



