126 The Rev. Dr. Hincks on the Flora of Ireland, 



Dublin, in 1816, in company with Mr. Tardy, a well-known ento- 

 mologist, he found one of these shells. In Mr. R. Ball's collection 

 are specimens which were obtained in Glasnevin Botanic Garden, 

 Dublin, but here they might have been introduced with plants from 

 England ; in the cabinet of Mr. O' Kelly of that city are two speci- 

 mens found by himself at Portmarnock ; by Mr. S. Wright of Cork, 

 I was shown a similar number, said to have been procured at 

 Youghalf. Notwithstanding this, I am not altogether satisfied 

 that the C. elegans is an indigenous species — it has on different oc- 

 casions been introduced to the country in the present century J, but 

 whether to any of the places mentioned previous to the specimens 

 being found there I am uninformed — the fact of only one or two in- 

 dividuals occurring anywhere looks suspicious. 



Dr. Turton states that he found a single shell of the Cyclostoma 

 productum near the sea- coast in the west of Ireland. Manual, p. 94. 



[To be continued.] 



XVII. — On early Contributions to the Flora of Ireland; with 

 Remarks on Mr. Mackay's Flora Hibernica. By the Rev. T. 

 D. Hincks, LL.D., M.R.I.A. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



[Continued from p. 12.] 



Gentlemen, 



Mr. Mac kay has adopted the natural arrangement in pre- 

 ference to the Linnaean, and in doing this has probably also 

 adopted that system preferred by the Dublin professor. This 

 may have its use, but it seems a strange thing that no two 

 botanists seem to be satisfied with the same arrangement, 

 which is an inconvenience to those who wish to compare the 

 Floras of different countries. It fortunately happens, how- 

 ever, that the variations in the plants contained, occur chiefly 

 in those orders w T hich contain few genera, for it is with re- 

 spect to genera that the difference is most troublesome. I 

 shall now proceed to offer some remarks upon the work. 



p. 5. Ranunculace^e. — Thalictrum Alpinum seems con- 

 fined to Connaught. Dr. Wade found it in 1801 at Lettery 



f Capt. Brown inadvertently notices this Cyclostoma as from " Portrush, 

 in the cabinet of Dr. M'Donnell, Belfast." Irish Test. p. 522. The speci- 

 mens thus alluded to have been shown me by Dr. M'Donnell, and are En- 

 glish — the species is unknown to him as Irish. 



X Many years ago the C. elegans, brought alive from France, was turned 

 out in the neighbourhood of Belfast. Here also, in 1835, a few individuals 

 were introduced, as well as at Killiney-hill near Dublin, and in a garden 

 within that city ; and more lately at Summer-hill near Limerick — I am not 

 aware of their having increased in any of these places. 



