284 IRIDEZA. [Sisyrinchium. 
of North American plants which finds a home in the west of 
Ireland. Four plants out of this group of five occur in 
Kerry, the sole absentee being an Orchid, Spiranthes Romanz- 
offiana, which, however, is found on the shores of Bantry 
Bay within a few miles of the county boundary. While the 
claim of the Spiranthes, Eriocaulon and Naias to rank as 
native in Ireland has been generally conceded, the true 
standing there of Sisyrinchium and Juncus tenuis, is still in 
question. While certainty on this point cannot be attained, 
the present writer is of opinion that both these plants are 
indigenous in Kerry. Several of the stations in which the 
Sisyrinchium occurs lend themselves readily to examination 
from year to year, and although this plant is recorded to 
have remarkable powers of spreading when once it has 
become established, as for instance in Germany, Queensland, 
&c., it appears to have made no appreciable increase in 
Kerry in the localities where it has been under observation 
longest, a period in some cases of over twenty years. This 
behaviour is in great contrast to the rapid spread in the 
county of such undoubted introductions as Matricaria dis- 
coidea, Linaria minor, Diplotaxis muralis, &c. It is well to 
remember, too, that the discovery of fresh localities for this 
plant in Kerry, or elsewhere along the west of Ireland, 
would not necessarily be a proof of its recent arrival there. 
Unless the flowers are open, and they are only found so in 
bright sunlight, few plants are more easily overlooked, the 
grass-like leaves blending readily with the surrounding 
herbage, so that it is most improbable that the actual dis- 
tribution of this plant is even now fully known. 
Most of the Kerry localities at present on record for the 
Sisyrinchium lie in the vicinity of Castlemaine Bay or 
Harbour, the almost landlocked extremity of Dingle Bay ; 
and although possible sources of introduction here are not 
wanting, such as old mills, &c., in several of the stations, 
even in this neighbourhood, as about Aughils, Boolteens, 
Laharan and Inch, the plant appears quite native. In its 
more remote localities elsewhere in the county, especially: 
near the Upper Lake, Killarney, and on the sea coast near 
Cooncrome, it is impossible to suggest any source of 
accidental introduction.* 
* In a locality taken at random near Laharen, the following plants were 
associated with the Sisyrinchium :—Potentilla Tormentilla, Carum verticil- 
latum, Achillea Ptarmica, Erica tetralix, Anagallis tenella, Juncus acutiflorus 
Anthoxanthum, Triodia, &c,, hor were any introduced plants seen in the 
neighbourhood, 
