1905- Knowlks. — A tropis Foucaudi in Irela7id 



51 



ATROPIS FOUCAUDI IN IREI.AND. 



BY MISS M. C. KNOWLKS. 

 [Read before the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, 28th Februar}', 1905.] 



In my paper, *' Notes on some Additions to the Flora of 

 County Limerick," in the October number of the Irish 

 Naturalist for 1903, I mentioned having found a grass in the 

 previous June, while botanising with my friend, Miss Char- 

 lotte O'Brien, at Robertstown Creek, in the neighbourhood 

 of Foynes, which Mr. Arthur Bennett said was like the French 

 Glyceria Foucaudi. As I had then collected very little 

 material, I v/aited until I could get a good series of speci- 

 mens to send to Professor Hackel, who is the authority on 

 this group. In June, 1904, while I was again on a visit to 

 Miss O'Brien, I made an excursion to Robertstown Creek 

 with Mr. R. D. O'Brien and Master Denis Gwynn to get 

 these. The season was a late one, and we did not find the 

 grass in such full flower as it had been on the same date the 

 previous year ; still we got a good gathering. Through the 

 kindness of the Rev. K- S. Marshall, some of these specimens 

 were sent to Professor Hackel last autumn. His verdict is 

 ** typical A tropis Foucaudi, Hack, in Husnot, Gramifia, page 

 49, 1896." This is the first record of Glyceria Foucaudi (or 

 Atyopis Foucaudi) ixom Ireland; Atropis is the generic name 

 given by continental botanists to the maritime section of 

 Glyce?ia This species was discovered in June, 1892, b}' the 

 late Mons. Foucaud on the banks of the Charente, between 

 Rochefort and the sea, where it grows on the muddy fore- 

 vShores, forming large clumps on the parts washed by the high 

 tides. It is also widely spread along that river from Roche- 

 fort to Port des Barques, and has been found on the borders 

 of salt marshes in the neighbourhood of Fouras. A descrip- 

 tion of the species was published by Mons. Foucaud in the 

 Bulletin, Societe Bota?iique Rochelaise, 1893, p. 43 ; it has 

 also been described and figured in Husnot's Graminees," 

 page 49, plate xvii. In England the Rev. K. S. Marshall has 



