56 



The Irish Naturalist. 



June, 



destitute of vegetation of any kind, only a few floating 

 leaves here and there of Potamogeton natans indicated the 

 presence of plant life. 



On the south side of the island behind Tramore Strand 

 lie two lakes ; the smaller, Shruhillbeg, has a sandy bottom 

 and water scarcely more than knee deep. Here flourished 

 C, aspera and C. delicatula in great abundance, and still 

 more abundantly Nitella opaca in several different forms 

 with well matured fruit. This lake could be examined 

 over almost its whole area by wading. The larger Lough 

 Keel is the most extensive lake of the island, a mile long 

 and three quarters of a mile broad with a sandy shallow 

 shore to the south where it nears the sea, but deeper and 

 with peaty banks as it stretches inland. For examining 

 this lake we had the advantage of a boat kindly placed 

 at our disposal by Mr. Sheridan, proprietor of Slievemore 

 Hotel. On the south side the lake was carpeted with 

 C. aspera and also yielded some excellent specimens of 

 N. opaca in a fine fruiting condition. In the deeper water 

 tufts of C. delicatula were growing on large blocks of turf 

 detached from the neighbouring banks. 



Near the east shore and in deeper water the drag brought 

 up some few plants of A^. translucens, but what proved by 

 far the most interesting find was the discovery, among 

 much mud and refuse brought up by the drag, of A^. batra- 

 chosperma growing in some 4-5 feet of water off the west 

 shore. Diligent search and dragging only produced a few 

 minute branchlets detached from plants which the drag 

 failed to hold, so minute as to be scarcely sufiicient to 

 cover one's thumb nail. However the determination of 

 the plant, often difficult to discriminate from N. tenuissima, 

 was insured by the discovery, when the pieces w^ere washed 

 and placed under the microscope, of one ripe oogonium, 

 showing the decoration of the membrane characteristic of 

 N. hatrachosperma. This is the only really important 

 find which I have to record from Achill Island, though tlie 

 occurrence of A^. translucens is interesting. 



Nitella hatrachosperma, it ma)^ be mentioned, was first 

 found in the J^ritish Isk's by Mr. W. S. Duncan who 

 collected it in the Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, in 1888. 



