4© Botany of the Shores of Lough Neagh. 



to be seen at Crumlin Waterfoot. The deposit in which they 

 occur must have been formed by the action or within the 

 influence of the sea. That being so, it seemed not very unHkely 

 that at least some of the group of plants to which he had called 

 their attention were survivals of a once littoral flora at Lough 

 Neagh, when, through subsidence of the land in Pleistocene 

 times, the country along the course of the Lower Bann was 

 probably an arm of the sea. 



Mr. Davies concluded by stating that he had been inviting 

 their attention to the Lough Neagh flora, but he thought 

 he might say that they in the North of Ireland, possessing 

 the largest lake in the United Kingdom, were perhaps 

 scarcely alive to the many debatable points in connection 

 therewith. The physical problems as to the origin of the 

 Lough itself would afford subjects for much discussion. Was it 

 glacier formed, or was it due to some geological flexure ? or, was 

 the depression caused by a fracture of the strata at that place 

 as suggested by Portlock's report ? Then, the geological 

 deposits surrounding it, its great bed of clay, with its petrified 

 trees and its nodules of ironstone in which are preserved the 

 fossilised leaves of a flora long since extinct in these regions, 

 required more investigation. Zoology off'ered for research 

 another field which had not yet been exhausted. The avifauna 

 was most attractive, and a further study of its unusual fish and 

 crustaceans would be instructive. 



Mr. S. A. Stewart, in the course of some brief remarks, said 

 he had listened with great pleasure to the paper which Mr. 

 Davies had just read. The shores around Lough Neagh sup- 

 ported a rich and varied flora, and its waters yielded an 

 abundance of aquatic plants, some being of considerable rarity. 

 Lough Neagh was often resorted to by the botanistj and 

 seldom failed to reward his research. Mr. Davies had just 

 shown that it had not yet been exhausted, and no doubt the 

 list of its plants will be still more extended when its western 

 shores have been scanned by keen eyed Naturalists as well as 



