SEP 27 1921 



September, 1921. Thp Irish Naturalist. 10 1 



NOTES ON DOWN AND DUBLIN PLANTS. 



BY R. LLOYD PRAEGER. 



L — Co. Down. 



Leontodon hirtus L.— This grows in rough grass in the 

 grounds of Sir John Ross of Bladensburg. The place is 

 famous for its collection of exotic shrubs and trees, and it 

 is possible that the plant came with some of these ; but 

 the habitat resembles others for the same plant at Narrow- 

 water and in the northern part of the county. It should 

 be looked for in other stations about Rostrevor. 



Cnicus lanceolatus Willd.— A plant growing in a field 

 on the western slope of Rathfriland Hill presented the 

 finest example of fasciation I have seen. The main stem 

 was strap-shaped, 4 ft. 6 in. high and 5 in. wide throughout 

 its length. It terminated in an extraordinary convoluted 

 flower-head 6 in. long and about i-J in. wide formed of 

 four complete S-turns, and measuring 16 in. along the 

 curve. The lateral stems, which in this species mostly 

 far overtop the main stem, were few and only half the 

 height of the latter, and normal in structure. Curiously 

 enough, only twenty feet away grew a Cnicus palustris 

 which displayed the same characters though in a lesser 

 degree. The main stem was similarly fasciate, about 3 it. 

 high and 3 in. wide ; the terminal heads were several, but 

 normal, and the lateral branches normal. 



Matricaria discoidea DC. — Now frequent along roadsides 

 in the Hilltown district. 



Digitalis purpurea L.— The propensity of Foxglove to 

 colonize ground from which trees have been removed is 

 well known, but I never saw such a colony as occupies an 

 area of some 10 to 20 acres from which the timber was 

 cut towards the end of the war high up on the shoulder 

 of the hill north of Rostrevor waterworks. The Foxgloves 

 at the end of June formed a sohd sheet of purple over the 

 whole area, making a bright purple patch even as seen 

 from the railway near Goraghwood, ten miles away. Sir 

 John Ross of Bladensburg tells me there are a good many 

 white-flowered plants among them, 



A 



