i9i6. Notes, 99 
NOTES. 
BOTANY. 
Andromeda polifolia in Co. Antrim. 
The occurrence of Andromeda polijolia, Linn., in County Antrim, is 
a discovery of interest to local botanists. On Saturda5^ May 27th, I 
and a few botanical friends were piloted to the bog where it grows by 
the finder, the Rev. W. R. Megaw, B.A. The bog in question is known 
as Sharvogues peat bog, and is adjacent to Kellswater railway station, 
near Ballymena. It lies about 150 feet above Ordnance datum. In 
its centre is a small lakelet ; and the Andromeda grows somewhat profusely 
on the wet Sphagnum of the area immediately surrounding the lake. 
A great deal of peat (of the " flow " type) has been cut in the bog for 
years past, but a considerable central area about the lake is as yet in its 
virgin condition. The typical heath plants growing on the bog are 
Calluna vulgaris, Erica Tetralix, and E. cinerea. Empetriim nigrum and 
Myrica Gale also occur. Closely associated with the Andromeda we 
noticed some other locally rare species, including Drosera anglica, Oxycoccus 
quadripetala, Listera cordata, Carex limosa, and C. cuvta. 
Mr. Megaw's find is most welcome to northern botanists. By it an 
important addition is made to the known Antrim flora. My pleasure, 
however, in making the announcement is tinged with forebodings as to 
the plant's lease of life at Sharvogues. Quite recently the bog attracted 
the attention of a commercial syndicate, and the latter are about to 
start working it for the usual marketable products. Already the whole 
surface has been trenched by a rectangular network of drains, and Mr. 
Megaw assured me that as a consequence the level of the lake had fallen 
considerably from the date of his previous visit a month earlier. 
VV. J. C. TOMLINSON. 
Belfast. 
Spring Flowers in 1916. 
The abnormal weather of the first three months of the present year 
is accountable for some curious phenomena in connection with the 
date of flowering of some of our spring plants. January was four or 
five degrees warmer than tlie average, and March four or five degrees 
colder. This seems to have thrown the normal sequence of spring 
flowers completely out of gear. At Aughrim at Easter (say April 23) 
while Wild Cherry was already in bloom, much of the Blackthorn 
(usually quite six weeks ahead of Cherry) had not yet opened its flowers. 
In my own garden some plants of Lesser Celendine in a shady place are 
only now (May 19) beginning to blossom. 
R. Lloyd Praeger. 
DubHn. 
