Hart's Station for Polygonum viviparum in Kerry and Its FloraAuthor(s): A. W. StelfoxSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 9, No. 5 (Jan., 1948), pp. 121-123Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25533583 .

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January-, 1948] The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 121

10. Symes, R. G., and Egan, F. W. Explanation of Sheets 7 and 8. Mem. Geol. Sur. Ireland (1888).

11. Hardman, E. T. Explanation of Sheet 35. Tyrone Coal-Field and

surrounding District. Mem. Geol. Sur. Ireland (1877). 12. Johnson, T.

" The Occurrence of Dewalquaea at Washing Bay."

Pro. Roy. Dublin Sac., vol. XVI, pp. 323-333 (1921). 13. Symes, R. G. Explanation of Sheet 20. Country around Bally

mena, etc. Mem. Geol. Sur. Ireland (1886).

Queen's University, Belfast.

BOTANICAL NOTES.

HART'S STATION FOR POLYGONUM V1VIPAIWM IN KERRY AND ITS FLORA.

I am informed by Dr. Praeger that so far as he is aware this plant has net (been seen in its only Kerry habitat since it was discovered

by H. C. Hart on the ridge N. of Brandon Mountain in 1883 (Proc. R.I. Acad. (2), IV, p. 220, 1884).

Hart's record reads as follows:?" About a mile and an eighth nortih. of the .summit of Brandon, ailting this ridge? and close to the ruins of an old signal tower, I discovered Polygonum viviparum, a

high alpine species, not known in Ireland south of Ben Buliben, in

Slilgo." Later, loc. cit., p. 228, Hart repeats this record in another form, namely:?" Pieiasmor-'e ridge, north of Brandon; 2,380 feet": "

Polygonum viviparum Linn., 'the only locality lor tine alpine bistort. Car ex rigida and the tufted Saxifrage also occur to keep it company. Its lowland neighboors [Bellis perennis, Achillea millefolium and

Plantago lanceolate, as listed by Hart (p. 228) ] probably reached this unusual altitude by the old track close by to the ruined signM-tbiwer.M

... R. W. Scully {Flora of Kerry, p. 245, 1016) repeats the record with variations: ?"

Damp ground on a mountain "

and "On Pierasmore

ridge at 2,380 feert,. aibout a mile and am eightfh north of (the summit of Brandon, not far from the ruins of an old signal tower/' but it seems obvious (that Scully ihimseilf never saw the plant in Kerry, as he gives no personal verification of Hart's record and there is no

specimen in his herbarium from Kerry. On a recent visit to Kerry (June, 1946) my wife and I succeeded in

refinding P. viviparum, but whether exactly in Hart's station is uncer

tain, as itihere is the usual ambiguity in his description of the locality. If we follow the ridge north of Brandon cummit, for one mile and

an eighth, we will come <to the conspicuous rocky crag marked on

maps as "

Pierasmtore," but if we are to visit <the only ruiin on the

ridge, marked by the Ordnance Survey as "

Monument "?and

obviously what Hart refers it? as "

the ruins of an old signal-tower "?

we must travel a further three-eighths of a mile, this ruin being exactly one and a half miles north of -the summit of Brandon.

Having on 13th June failed to find anything nearer P. viviparum than stunted plants of ftumex acetosa on Pierasmore, w,e returned on

17th June and searched the neognbourhood of the ruined "

Monument," and while I looked around and about ithis my wife searched the -square

plot of ground within its four tumbled-doavn walls and <soon called me

to look at a plant growing in the sward within itJie square. Later the same plant was found abundantly near 'the ruin and proof thai it was

Polygonum viviparum came with several flowering spikes, which were

just putting in an appearance. Personally I am 'satisfied thait this is

Hart's station, though the distance north of Brandon is 1? and not

\\ miles, and the altitude cannot be more than 2,180, and not 2,380 feet, as it is under the 2,200 feet contour line on the nalf-dnch Ordnance map and ith-e 2,250 contour on. the one-inch map.

This ridge north of Brandon is one of the most exposed places I have ever been on and on both occasions we found it difficult to

stand at times ; in consequence the vegetation is wind-shorn in the

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122 The Iiusii Natuualists' Joukxal. [Vol. IX.

extreme and large patches' of bare ground exist?usually covered by small to large pebbles weathered out of the local Old Red Sandstone rocks or "Dingle Beds "?some of which are obviously o<f recent

origin and due to erosion of the: former peaty covering ; my belief, however, is that the bare patches around which Polygonum viviparum grows are very ancient and that deep peat never covered the area around the

" Monument" P. viviparum appeared to us ito be very

particular where it grew, tout further exploration on a fine day is

required to decide its range, as ithe ridge is not a pleasant spot to

linger on in a N.W. gale with frequent showers of sleet and hail anil continuous mist not much above freezing point. As we observed the

plant, however, it grew only in the half to one inch high isward

fringing the bare peibbly areas ,amongst Rhacomitrium, other mosses,

Thyme, Sedum anglicum and a few dwarf grasses, etc. In these

places there appeared to iba no real soil, humus or peatf, its roots

penetrating directly into a red pasty mud, apparently entirely formed

by disintegration of (the iooal /reck. Within (tints" anvtiraiinent P.

viviparum may be truly described as locally abundant. From the sward surrounding several specimens brought home numerous

"seedlings" subpsequjenrtay appeared, (derived, I believe, from the bulbils fallen off the previous year's flower-spikes. Were it not lor this close sward surrounding the parent plants, formed by the

IViacomitrium, these bulbils would be scattered by the wind over a wide area-^pro'baibly to perish amongst a taller vegetation, with which the Polygonum cannot apparently compete. It would almost seem, therefore, that Its survival in its Kerry habitat depends on (1) proximity to bare ground, (2) presence of a thin sward of mosses and other

plants, (3) the effects of wind and rain in keeping down the -coarser

plants and preventing the deposition of peat, and possibly also (4) the nature of the subsoil, though plants brought home iby me and grown

in a mixture of ordinary soil, sand and peat seemed still perfectly healthy in October, when their leaves withered and died. Of the three

flower-spikes produced by my plants1 mat one bore a perfect flower, but the positions of the lower flowers were taken toy bulbils, which,

by mid-August looked like tiny fat, reddish (bottles and in some cases had already fallen ito the ground. At an earlier stage each bulbil

produced at least one very small, .bright green leaf, but these leaves soon withered and dropped off.

From the small patches of the sward brought home with the

Polygonum, several curiously dwanf plants of a grass grew up: these varied from half to one inch, in height and ibore from one to three flowers. Mr. Desmond Meikle 'thinks these grasses are Air a praecox.

Hart (p. 228) givete the names of five plants? Bellis perennis, Achillea millifolium, Plantago lanceolatat Car ex rigida and

*' the

tufted Saxifrage "

(i.e. one of the hirta group)?-as associates of

Polygonum viviparum, hut it would be just as easy to give the names

of twenty-five as truly <l associated" with it as these must have been.

It is true that amongst the stones of the nearby .ruins a Mossy Saxifrage of the S. hirta (group does grow and that Carcx rigida (with Sax.

stellaris and Salix herbacea) was frequent in the slightly denser

vegetation close by and where a little peat had formed, but the only

plants noted by us actually growing with the Polygonum were

Rhacomitrium (I think JR. lanuginosuml) and no doubt some other

mosses, Thymus, Sedum anglicum and a few grasses in too early a

stage to be identified.

On the almost hare expanses of pebbles and mud many isolated

plants have found a footing, hut were most difficult to identify owing to the effects of exposure. Thus a small rosette, two inches in diameter,

of linear, entire, pale green leaves was it-raced to Leontodon autumnalis

and plants brought home gradually produced slightly toothed leaves and a few small flowers born on almost horizontal stems ; an obvious

plantain, with long tap-root and linear, grass-like leaves, has revealed

itself as PlaMayo maritima ; and a plant with almost round, downy leaves will, I think, eventually prove to be Solidago. Varj^us other

j'lunts seen were similarly aberrant and difficult to identify and flic

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January, 1048] The .I'msix Xati'haijsts' Journal. 12:3

flora of this whole area would be well worth special study, but the person who makes the study should stay near Brandon Creek, if possible, and not at Cloghane, and will require a camera to do just ice to tihe remarkable appearance of the vegetation.*

* Hart's record for Plantago lanceolata may be due to a slip of memory, for, as stated above, we found only P. maritima at this place. Moreover, on the isame page of this rep out (p. :12S) Hart records P. lanceolata as growing at 2,200 feet above Lough Nalackan, though

previously (p. 210) he states that P. maritima was found above this lake.

H ClarevilJe Bond, Dublin. 27t.h. November, 1016. A. W. STELFOX.

ZOOLOGICAL NOTES.

LESSER RORQUAL STRANDED OX COAST OF COUNTY ANTRIM.

A Lesser Rorqual, Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata bacepede, female, was found dead on the coast at Whitehead, County Antrim, on 27th May, 19*7. The following are measurements taken at time of examination:

Total length . ... ... 27' 3" Middle of dorsal fin to tail ... ... 8' 4|" Vertical height of dorsal fin ... ... 1' 0"

Length of (left) flipper. 3' 9"

It would appear from an examination of the records that this

species is the most frequently recorded of all the Cetacea in Ireland. Moffat {Proc. R.I.A., vol. 44, p. 113) mentions that it was first found

in 1868.

Belfast. C. DOUGLAS DEANE.

BATS DRINKING.

How and when do bats drink? My wife tells me that an injured Pipistrelle (which she kept in captivity for three or four days until it was able to fly) readily licked up drops of water offered to it on the end of a knitting-needle, but no doubt the bats are not dependant on such intervention, though it did not occur to me that I had never seen one drinking.

On a very warm and sunny morning, 11th August, at 8.10 a.m., solar time, my wife and I were standing beside a small pond near

Kilmore Cathedral when we noticed a bat touching the surface of the pond without visibly checking its flight, rising towards us and

flying around on a circle of about 50 yards diameter. This brought if iback to the pond, where it again touched the surface in passing. Its flight brought the animal within ten feet of our heads and I have

no doubt that it was a Hairy-Armed Bat. Over a dozen of these

fliights were made before two Swallows arrived and chased the bat, which flew' around over a wider area until it eluded the birds, to

return for about twelve more visits to the pond. It then flew away over the main road and we thought it would enter the belfry of

Kilmore Cathedral, but when it reached a large tree it turned abruptly and made straight for the yard behind us, no doubt having its

retreat there.

The time of flight was abnormal, being nearly four hours after sunrise, whereas as 'the late C. B. Moffat has shown {I.N., vol. IX,

p. 236) that this species usually retires about half an hour before sunrise ; perhaps the method of drinking was abnormal too. As I have not been able to find any reference to the manner of drinking I publish this note hoping to learn of similar experiences.

The Hairy-Armed Bat is scarce in this locality. When we lived at Cauhoo at least one lived in a gap in the masonry of the house

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