52 



The Irish Naturalist. 



March, 



found it in Kent along the shores of the estuary of the 

 Medway, growing on alluvial mud about Port Victoria 

 and Grain (see Marshall and Hanbury : " Flora of Kent/' 

 page 405.) These are the only localities in which it was 

 known to grow until I found it in June, 1903, at Robertstown 

 Creek, on the Shannon estuary. The original spot where I 

 gathered it was on the west branch of the creek, close to the 

 railway bridge, but it grows abundantly on the slob lands all 

 round the creek, and on Aughinish. So far as my obser- 

 vation went, and Mr. O'Brien's coincides with it, the 

 grass is confined to these tidal muds between the marks of 

 spring and ordinary tides. On the sandy point of Aughinish 

 we found no trace of it, nor did we meet with it along 

 the rocky beach of the Shannon estuary between Foynes and 

 Tarbert, though we collected specimens of Glycetia fnariiima 

 at several places. At Tarbert, on a piece of muddy foreshore, 

 we gathered specimens which may be Atropis Foucaudi, but I 

 have not yet submitted them to Prof. Hackel. Mr. Marshall, 

 in the " Flora of Kent," places his grass under Glyceria 

 viariihna as a variety ; but Prof Hackel considers Atropis 

 Foucaudi a very distinct species, coming nearest Glyceria 

 maritivia, and says it is distinguishable from all the other 

 maritime vSpecies of Glyceria by " the silky pubescence of the 

 nerves of the flowering glumes, and the ciliated upper paleae, 

 &c." Mons. Foucaud places it near Glyceria festuccefo^mis^ 

 Oris., a Mediterranean species lately added to the flora of the 

 British Islands by Mr. Praeger ; and says it can be distin- 

 guished from G, festiccceforrnis by the thin walls and large 

 central cavity of the culms, by the numerous barren stems, 

 the broad leaves, the more robust and more developed 

 panicle, the pubescence on the nerves of the flowering 

 glumes, especially at the base, and b}^ the ciliated upper 

 palse. I have to thank Mons. Tousset, President' de la Soc 

 Bot. Rochelaise, for a copy of the number of the Bulletifi 

 containing Mons. Foucaud's original description of the 

 species, and also for a specimen of Atropis Foucaudi, from its 

 original locality, collected by Mons. Foucaud. I have thus 

 been able to compare my Irish plant with a type specimen, 

 and, except that the French plant is a little more mature and 

 robust, they seem identical. 



