A Further Note on Alnus incanaAuthor(s): A. W. StelfoxSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 6, No. 6 (Nov., 1936), p. 150Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25532650 .

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150 The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. VI.

The Seligerias are all minute, but their close gregarious habit

gives a slight green or brownish tinge to the chips on which they grow and a pocket lens plainly reveals the little tufts of life. It would be interesting to discover the two species still unrecorded in Ireland and winter time offers better exposure of the chips on which these

tiny plants may be found. If any reader of the I.N J. should find what looks like a Seligeria I shall be glad to receive it. Please send the

stone; don't try to dislodge the plants as they cling close even to the smoothest indurated limestone.

The other moss, Bryum Marratii Wils., I found by the river Bann, near Portstewart, Co. Deny. It is the first authentic Irish record. This moss ranges sparingly in Great Britain from Merioneth to the Outer Hebrides, in eight shires, divided equally between England and Scotland. It is a plant of the swamp and wet, sandy seashore. Except to the eye which knows the look of a Bryum it would be difficult to

distinguish from its surroundings. Belfast. W. R. MEGAW.

A FURTHER NOTE ON ALNUS INCANA.

I have chanced upon an old note in the Botanical Exchange Club

Report for 1922, p. 622, by the late Dr. G. Claridge Druce, on the occurrence of this Alder in Cumberland. Some of Druce's remarks

may be of interest in connexion with my record for South Kerry in

l.NJ.t vol. V, p. 308, 1935. Here are a few extracts from Druce's article:?Occurs in

" Europe,

even arctic, Northern Asia, and North America. Introduced into Britain in 1780 (Loudon)."

" In Norway it is a conspicuous tree oh the lower

slopes of the mountains and by lake sides, but I observed no trees taller than 25 feet. Usually it forms a close scrub. In North America it grows in thickets along the stream sides, and there rarely exceeds 20 feet. In the Jura and Alps it rejoices in the proximity of mountain streams." "From the geographical distribution it is a tree which

we might have expected to occur in Britain." The Cumberland specimen was gathered by the Rev. W. Wright

Mason, from a tree at least 30 years old, growing beside Sunny Gill

Beck, "

in a plantation of young larch and spruce ": thus it was

presumably older than the plantation. Druce adds: "

The method of

introduction, for at present we have no evidence which warrants us in claiming it as a native, is doubtful."

14 Clareville Road, Dublin. A. W. STELFOX.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

Isles of the Seven Seas, by Collingwood Ingram. 283 pp., 31 plates, 18/- net. London, Hutchinson & Go.

After reading this excellent book one is left with a feeling of complete satisfaction, together with some envy, not only of the author's

opportunities for travel, but for his complete mastery of phrase, comment, and the art of descriptive writing. Essentially Mr. Ingram is a field botanist and ornithologist?perhaps more the latter?who has

hunted throughout the world on a dozen islands, each having a

distinctive flora and fauna. Near home he has explored Coll in the Hebrides and incidentally mentions, in remarks concerning the Coal

Tit, that it was he who first discovered the Irish Coal Tit in Co.

Sligo in 1910, though credit did not come his way. There are several Irish references in the book. Of the Orcadian isle of Sanday we get an almost complete chapter on its wonderful bird life, with the Red necked Phalarope taking the honours. It is a far cry to Little Tobago in the West Indies?" an emerald, set in a sea of sapphire "?where

vegetation is extravagantly luxurious. This tiny island was bought

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