+ Phillips and Praeger—The Ferns of Ulster. 
in summer we can explore the Athyriums and Lastreas and Blechnums in out 
woods and on our mountain sides, in winter the evergreen fronds of Po y- 
sliehmn and Seolopendrium peep at ns through the leafless hedges an wave 
luxuriantly in all our glens, inviting us to take up bag and trowel an go 
off Fern-hunting. We may add that we shall be very happy to give all the 
information in onr power concerning this branch of botany to anyone asking 
it, or to name fronds sent to us, or to receive notes of new localities for 
SP0 °The district to which this list refers is bounded to the southward by the 
frontier line of Ulster, with the exception of the south-east and south-west 
corners, where in each case a slight encroachment has been “^e on an 
adjoining province. In the south-west a detour has been made in order to 
include the famous botanical region of Ben Bulben, m the extreme northern 
comer of Co. Sligo ; and on the south-east our line has been rawn so 
include the Carlingford Mountains, in Co. Louth, which botamcally a 
less degree geologically, belong to the Mourne Mountains, in Co Do 
regards the distribution of species In this area, few general observations can 
be made. Aspleniwn marinum and Adiantum Capillus - Veneris occur y 
the coast line ; the former being recorded from all our maritime counties, and 
growing in all suitable situations along our shores ; the latter bein„ 
to a limited area in Donegal* Polystichum angular* haunts the low 
districts in the east of the province, and is almost entirely unknown among 
the barren mountainous districts of Donegal and Fermanagh In he»e 
latter, however, the Royal Fern, Osmimia regain, occurs most P l8n “" J' 
luxuriating in the rich peaty soil that surrounds the numerous lata m those 
regions. Polysticlium lonchitis and Asplemum vinde are con 
western counties; Ophioglossum loves the rich pastures of Down 
and Armagh. As Ulster plants, three of our Ferns are confined to Donega , 
and it is a very strange thing that these three species, which are found^ly 
in the bleakest and most northern of all our counties, shoul 
plants. Ophioglossum lusitanicum is a plant of the “rranemr coaste «md 
the Canary Isles, whose only other British stations are Kerry and Guernsey 
The Killamey Fern, Triehomanes radicam, prmcipa y aun s, 
species, the shadiest rocks in the south and south-west of Ireland and he 
Maidenhair, Adiantum Capillus- Veneris, makes i \ hom \“ T n Xd a ndto 
and the north of Africa, occurring also on the south coast of England l and 
the south-west of Ireland. Some of the species, again, seem are 
Athyrium Filix-fcemina, Polystichum aculeatum, and Lastrea P 
examples — occurring equally in damp shady woods and glens, <m _«P» ^ 
banks and roadsides, and on storm-swept mountains, where they flourish 
among the stones and rocks. . •_ , i.q a qo 
Of the 46 British and 33 Irish species of Ferns, our province yields 
* with the exception of a few plants found in Leitrim. 
