A New Species of Synchytrium in IrelandAuthor(s): M. J. P. ScannellSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), p. 81Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25536968 .

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81

designed to represent botany, zoology and geology and to draw its members from all the four provinces of Ireland. The Council of the Academy accepted the

constitution of the committee in June 1955, directing that as the fund to be administered was in charge of the Academy only Members of the Academy could serve on the committee. The Fauna and Flora Committee and the Committee for Quaternary Research were discontinued, their places being taken by The

Robert Lloyd Praeger Committee for Field Natural History. The annual income of the fund is a little less than ?400. Grants are made at the meeting of the committee in March each year.

These do not normally exceed ?40 but in special cases larger grants have been made. Financial assistance has also 'been given to the Irish Naturalists' Journal as constant and frequent publication of new records is essential to field work. Applications for grants should be made 'before February 15th in any year. They should be addressed to The Executive Secretary, Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, who will supply an approved (application form. Subject to the decision of the committee grants are available to any competent worker whether professional or amateur.

The committee has put aside into a special account a portion of the income to build up a reserve which may be used for selected investigations of a

more costly nature.

Since the committee was founded over 80 small grants for field work have been given, ranging from ?10 to ?60. The Irish Naturalists' Journal has received an annual subvention as well as a considerable advance towards the cost of publication of the Species Index. Major projects that have been supported are borings to interglacial deposits and the ecological survey of The Burren, Co. Clare.

Greenfields, Milltown Road, Dublin 6. A. Farrington

BOTANICAL NOTES A NEW SPECIES OF SYNCHYTRIUM IN IRELAND

In preparation for a monograph of the genus, the Irish herbarium material of Synchytrium was reviewed in 1960 by Prof. Dr John S. Karling, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. Amongst the material labelled Synchytrium aureum there occurs a specimen with the legend "on Plantago lanceolata. Antrim, August, 1907". This chytrid fungus which infects the leaves and petioles of ribwort plantain has been designated a new species and is now called Synchytrium erieum Karling. In his monograph (Synchytrium, J. S. Karling, New York: 1964, p. 183) Karling says "This is the only known long-cycled species on Plantago. In the large stze of some of the sporangia, their low number, and the shape of the sporangial galls, t^is species is superficially similar to S. taraxadi'*. A full description of the fungus appears in Sydowia, Annates Mycologici, Ser. II, 15, 100-101, 1961. The holotype is in Herbarium, National Museum of Ireland (DBN).

I have not been able to trace the origin of the specific epithet erieum; it would appear as if eireum was intended but that a vowel has become transposed.

The Synchytrium was probably collected by J. Adams but this is not stated on the specimen.

National Museum of Ireland. M. J. P. SCANNELL.

THE SUMMER SNOWFLAKE NEW TO CO. MEATH

On 18th April, 1964,1 collected a flowering specimen of Leucojum aestivum L. The plant was growing in marshy ground by the River Boyne at Oldbridge, above Drogheda, in County Meath. There were four flowering stems growing close together but, although I searched the immediate area, I could not find it in any other spot.

The place, which is near the gardens at Glenmore, Is part of Oldbridge Estate. This, and the presence of a grove of a giant Heracleum nearby suggests that Leucojum is an escape from cultivation at Oldbridge.

M. C. Knowles and R. A. Phillips consider it to be a native plant In Ireland where it has been "brought from its native haunts into the garden" (On the Claim of the Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum) to be Native in Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 28 (B8), 387-399). D. A. Webb (1963, An Irish Flora) says that it is "often an escape but probably native in S."

National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. D. M. SYNNOTT.

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