1906. 
Knowi.es. — Alie?i Flora of Ireland. 
145 
kept henS; I wrote to Mr. Shackleton, of Auna Liffey House, 
one of the owners of the mills, to make inquiries ; and I give 
an extract from his interesting letter : — 
" It is very amusing your finding so many casuals on the 
canal bank ; your surmise is right — our clerk, living in the 
cottage you speak of, did keep hens when he lived there, which 
he fed partially on screenings and dirty stuff from the mills, 
Lyons mills, which were burned curiously enough on the 
night of the 5th of November. After that we brought him 
down to work for us here. I have just been speaking to him, 
and he was rather astonished at the result of his fowl feeding. 
In our mills the wheat that we grind comes from all parts of 
the world — for instance, from India, Russia, Australia, the 
eastern States of America, California, Canada. The Caspian 
is w^hat w^e call the dirtiest, that is, it contains most seeds and 
other foreign substances. The Australian is the cleanest, and 
so gives you least amusement. We also got a lot of wheat 
from Buenos Ayres latterly." 
This supplied me with the information I wanted, and I paid 
several visits to the place during the autumn of 1904, and 
made a collection of all the species in flower. Each time I 
went I expected to find a new tenant in the cottage and the 
place swept and garnished, but this calamity had not happened 
up to December, 1905, the last time I was there. These aliens 
seem to flower late in this country, and I had evidently come 
in for the first crop of plants that had sprung up after the 
cottage was vacated. There were a good many, however, that 
had not flowered before the winter came on. Some of these 
flowered in the following year, and several new species 
appeared, but the sum.mer of 1905 was an exceptionally dry 
one, and the drought killed off many of the plants that had 
appeared the year before, and several of the more abundant 
species had greatly decreased. The following table shows the 
plants that were found in each year, and also whether they 
were increasing or decreasing in the second season. There 
were many others besides those mentioned in this list that 
may or may not have been introductions here, but as they 
occur in cultivated and waste places all over Ireland I have 
made no mention of them. I have confined myself to the 
certain introductions. 
