Recent Finds in Co. TyroneAuthor(s): Oliver DaviesSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 6, No. 12 (Nov., 1937), pp. 298-299Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25532768 .

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

RECENT FINDS IN CO. TYRONE.

By Oliver Davies.

The following objects have been found recently in Co.

Tyrone bogs:? (a) A flat celt, apparently of bronze from its yellow colour,

at Dungate, OS 28, 16?" east, 64" south (fig. 1). It splays much at the blade, where it is 3.9" wide, while only 1.3" at the butt; it is 5.7" long x \" thick. Both faces are slightly convex, and there is no casting ridge; the butt has a blunt edge, the blade is

slightly bevelled by grinding or hammering, and there is a bevel on one face along the sides. It was lying flat above a layer of roots about 4' down in a bog 7' deep.

(b) A barbed

f **Nv A and tanged arrow f ^ ?rk head of bad flint,

I I J&rl slightly burned on

I I Cj" Y*t ' tne 8UJr*ace (^8- 2)?

I I j?w yt at Keerin, OS

I 6 I 1^ H J 19, 85*" east' 1B" i g M /\^\ V^

i south; the maxi

P %??-^V^n3 I mum thickness is M %^^P jlj5^ ^ mms., the length

B \ ?fU/ /fk an(* breadth 5.1 g \F ^y

AiQ and 3.2 cms! The I g %rig.O

?iA I arrow was lying

I F \ A*y[j beside a stump of / \ r ̂ Sm Pme ab?u* &' deep / \ /> <h?5a m a bog at least 7'

| / \ A&O^vOm ̂eeP an<* Perbaps

! / \f'9** (c) ^ barbed \f I j

and tanged arrow

| V* ̂ ? / / head, roughly I x*^"

^ ? ^_~~~^r worked, from the

Fig.1

^N**'^ ^**^ base of a bog near

?__- I the top of Glen macoffer mountain, east of Gortin (fig. 3) ; length 6.9 cms., width 3.9 cms., maximum thickness .9 cms.

These finds are important for the information they afford on the growth of peat in Ireland. They must all belong to the sub-boreal period, before 700 B.C., when the climate was dry and

warm, and peat on the mountains would be deteriorating. Peat had formed in some places in the Atlantic period, perhaps over all the mountains; but in the succeeding dry period it seems generally to have been eroded, so that Neolithic or Bronze Age finds are often made on the bog-floor, like (c). Since 700 B.C. peat has

again formed on the mountains, and its usual depth is about four feet. But finds (a) and (b) came from half-way up bogs considerably more than four feet deep; it is reasonable to suppose that in hollows, where there would be little if any erosion, the

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November, 1937.] The Irish Naturalists'Journal. %IW

earlier peat would have survived, and the finds from the inter

mediate root-layer represent the dry sub-bprfeal period. Thus our peat-research experts should not search for Atlantic peat on

the surface, but at low levels in deep bogs, where erosion and

deterioration has not been possible. Belfast.

BOTANICAL NOTES.

SOME LESS COMMON PLANTS OF THE WEST-MIDLAND COUNTIES OF IRELAND.

The following plants are not entered in the respective botanical

districts in the Census List of Dr. Praeger's book, The Botanist in

Ireland. They were found by me, chiefly during the present year, 1937.

Spiranthes spiralis is not recorded for Offaly or Roscommon. In

Offaly it grows fairly abundantly on the north shore of Fin Lough, in the north-west of the County. In fto&common I found about a

dozen plants in a field near Kiltoom between Athlone and Knock

croghery. Another plant not (reported from Offaly is Orobanche minor%

About a dozen specimens on clover were in flower this year near

the gravel pits on the esker ridge at Clara.

Epipactis palustris, not recorded for Co. Longford, occurs on both shores of Elfeet Bay, on the Longford shore of Lough Ree.

Bhamnus Frangula is not entered for Westmeath, I found one bush on Tully Bog near Moy drum.

A fine group of Orobanche Hederae grows on top of a wall at

Twyford House in the same neighbourhood. An apparently wild station for Cornus sanguinea is a hedge on

the right side of the Clara-Moate road, about one mile from the former town. The two last plants have, of course, been recorded for these counties in the Census List.

Clara, Offaly. 11-10-37. J. G. D. LAMB.

BLUE-FLOWERED PIMPERNEL NEAR MALAHIDE.

Since there would appear to be few records for this blue-flowered variety

* of the Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis var. caerulea

Schrebe|r) from Co. Dublin, I wish to record that I found a plant of it on

" The Island," Malahide, in September, 1937.

Colgan records it as found sparingly in a cornfield near Portrane in 1895, Which locality is in the same division of Co. Dublin.

Malahide, Co. Dublin. 16-9-37. MAY CROSBIE.

ANDROMEDA POLIFOLIA IN CO. ARMAGH.

On 29th August I was delighted to find a small colony of about 20 plants of Andromeda growing about 150 yards from the main Portadown?Dungannon road, and the same distance south-west of Derryadd Lake. Most of the plants were under 6 inches in height and none had fruits, although a few withered flowers were seen. These plants were, for the most part, growing underneath large plants of ling. Lycopodium Selago was also found in this association.

For several seasons I searched for Andromeda over a wide area of the north Armagh bogs, but never until this year did I find it.

Unfortunately this rare species may, in a few seasons, become conv pletely cut out from the Derryadd district, as the Irish Peat Develop ment Company is cutting peat very extensively in the district.

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