16 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 186G. 



David Moore, Ph. D m P. L. S., M. E. I. A., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting having been read and signed, 

 the following paper was then read : — 



On the Occurrence of Hymenophyllum Wilsoni in the Neighbour- 

 hood of Boyle; with Notice of New Stations for some of our 

 rarer Plants in the surrounding District. By P. J. Poot, M. A., 

 P. KG. S.I. 



At a former meeting of the Society I recorded the occurrence ofHymen- 

 ophyllum Tunbridgense on some conglomerate rocks near Longford. 

 Since then I have searched several apparently likely localities on similar 

 rocks, to the N. and 1ST. W. of that station, but without success. 



I have lately, however, had the good fortune to find Hymenophyllum 

 Wilsoni growing, in tolerable abundance, about eight miles west, or 

 west by south, of Boyle. 



Here, to the west of that large and dreary sheet of water called Lough 

 Gara, the country consists of rocky, much glaciated hills, formed of 

 coarse and fine conglomerates, their highest point attaining to a height 

 of 646 feet above the sea level. 



They are, indeed, a part of the range of hills which have been dig- 

 nified with the name of the Curlew Mountains, and which stretch away 

 from here north of the town of Boyle, the highest point being 863 feet 

 above the sea level. 



About one mile and a half west of Lough Gara, county of Sligo, and 

 the same distance south-west of the ancient Castle of Moygara — one 

 of the strongholds of the M'Dermots, — I came across a rather steep 

 escarpment of beds of coarse and fine Eed Sandstones and conglomerates 

 facing the north. It looked a promising spot for Hymenophylrum, and, 

 after a short but close search, I discovered H. Wilsoni growing in the 

 shady nooks of the rock, facing due north. As I proceeded, I found that 

 it grew in tolerable abundance. 



It seemed, as far as I could see, to be all the same species — H. Wil- 

 soni — as determined by the fruit, though many of the fronds, growing 

 in the more shady spots, were undistinguishable from those of H. Tun- 

 bridgense. 



This station is the apex of a nearly isosceles loiv-pitched triangle, of 

 which a line drawn from the luxuriant Lough Mask station for IT. 

 Tunbridgense to the scanty Longford one is the base. 



JBT* Tunbridgense also grows abundantly on the southern shores of 

 Lough Gill, near Sligo ; as also, I believe, does S. Wilsoni ; so I think 

 this new station is interesting, as filling up a gap in the distribution of 

 the genus. 



It may now be described as growing pretty freely over Ireland in 

 most suitable places. 



