42 



The Irish Naturalist. 



February, 



where it now lies. In 1904 Mullein came up in quantity, both in the 

 flower border and in the heap of spoil. It is not land where Mullein 

 would grow wild, but the plant is used in this country as a remedy in 

 consumptive cases, and it may have been cultivated long ago in some 

 garden on this spot. Fumitory and Polygonmn Convolvulus made their 

 appearance in the cut edges of the walk. Some years ago when I was 

 building on this field I removed the active soil from the site of the house, 

 and it lay where it was piled for about eighteen months. I was sur- 

 prised at the number of plants quite foreign to the pasture that came up, 

 and regret that I did not make a note of them. There was Fumitory in 

 several forms, an Atriplex or Chenopodiuin, I am not sure which, in 

 great o^^inWly— Polygonum aviculare, the Red Pimpernel, and many other 

 plants that I cannot now be sure of. I would direct attention to the 

 very interesting speculations and experiments recorded in " More Letters 

 of Charles Darwin," particularly those with seeds of supposed geologic 

 date, where he seems to have too easily accepted a negative conclusion. 



R. D. O'Brien. 



Parteenalax, lyimerick. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Irish Marine Worms. 



In his " Notes from the Gatty Marine Laboratory, No. 26" (^Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist- (7.), vol, xv., 1905), Prof. M Intosh refers to the occurrence 

 of the following species off the coast of IreXsiniS. : --Glycinde Nordmanni 

 Malny, Glycera unicornis, Savigny, Glycera lapidum, Quatref., and Glycera 

 alba, H. Rathke. 



Irish Woodlice and Marine Isopoda. 



In the Irish Naturalist of October, 1903, Dr. Norman's supplemental 

 list of British Land Isopods has already been referred to. He now gives 

 us a second supplemental list {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. x.'v. (7th S.) 

 1904), in which he mentions that Armadillidium pulchellum, which was 

 discovered at Ballymote, Co. Sligo, by Scharff in 1901, has now been 

 taken by Dr. Brady at Araside, in Westmoreland. Of the other new 

 British species alluded to by Dr. Norman, both 1 richoniscus alhidus and 

 Porcillis rathkei will probably be found in Ireland also. 



A second paper of Dr. Norman's deals with some of the marine allies 

 of our woodlice. The Irish species mentioned are Circolana borealis, 

 Eurydice pukhra, Idotea balthica, I, granulosa., I. pelagica, I. metallica, I. emar- 

 ginata, Astacilla longicornis and A. intermedia. 



