Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. 



385 



Hence some of our rare plants are met with in the vicinity of such 

 religious buildings. The Arbutus grows luxuriantly when planted 

 in Ireland ; yet nowhere does it attain the size as in the neighbour- 

 hood of Killarney. The extreme western position, the wild and hu- 

 mid atmosphere, with the continued vegetation that exists through- 

 out the year, unchecked by frosts, materially favours its propagation. 

 Its beautiful berries arriving at maturity, greedily fed on by birds, 

 we may well conjecture the seeds can be conveyed by them to most 

 inaccessible places, where they vegetate in situations almost desti- 

 tute of soil. In the island opposite O'Sullivan's Cascade, Mr. Mac- 

 kay measured the stem of an Arbutus, which equalled in girth the 

 bulk of the beautiful Yew-tree inclosed within the abbey walls of 

 Mucruss. This exuberance of growth exceeds by far that of its na- 

 tive countries, even where it is so luxuriant, as in Candia. In the 

 reign of Elizabeth, Philip, king of Spain, sent to that queen a 

 splendid collection of orange trees. The vessel was wrecked on the 

 coast of Glamorganshire, in the Bristol channel ; and as Lord of the 

 Manor, one of the Mansels of the Margam estate became possessed 

 of the freight. The trees were planted in the gardens of Margam, 

 at the foot of the lofty Mynydd Mawr, and thus was formed the 

 finest and most magnificent orangery in the kingdom. The rare 

 Pisum maritimum, its only locality the shores of Castlemain bay, 

 owes its introduction to the wreck of a vessel which stranded on the 

 shallows of Inch. Cork terminated our botanical tour, and although 

 not in so successful a manner as our sanguine expectations led us to 

 anticipate, yet the novelty of our movements, and the exceeding 

 kindness of our friends, rendered it altogether one of great gratifica- 

 tion and pleasure. However, views have been formed of the gene- 

 ral features of the interesting country through which we have pass- 

 ed, that have led to most reasonable and satisfactory conjectures as 

 to what may yet be effected in parts of those unfrequented and still 

 unexplored wilds. Near Cork, towards the range of the neat village 

 of Douglas, we visited the noted bog of Ballyphehane, the interest- 

 ing ground of many of Mr. Drummond's rarest plants, their habitats 

 now fast disappearing before the plough and the harrow. There we saw 

 the Pinguicula grandiflora in abundance (but I fear ere this extinct), 

 the lusitanica and vulgaris nowhere appeared. At Sunday's Well 

 we noticed the station of the Sedum dasyphyllum, and near the city 

 jail brought to light the long and much-doubted Linaria minor. 

 Accompanied by my friend Alexander, the detector of the Senecio 

 squalidus, we traced it on the w r alls and houses in the old parts or 

 the city, and it is astonishing how so distinct and abundant a plant 

 could have escaped the attention of former botanists, and of that of 

 the active Drummond." 



LEEDS PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY. 



The Annual Report of this Society has just been forwarded to us 

 at the close of its twentieth session. " The ordinary funds of the 

 Society are in a satisfactory state. For the first time for many years 



Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vi. 2 c 



