62 The Irish JVaturaiist. April, 



butioii towards the knowledge of their flora. It was duriug the 

 same year that Wright was appointed locuvi teiiais for Harvey, 

 then Professor of Botany in Trinity College — an event which 

 seems to have caused him to determine definitely to take up 

 Science as his profession. Consequentl}^ he gave up ophthal- 

 mological work in 1866. In 1865 his attention was called to 

 the fossils of the Jarrow colliery, and with Huxley he published 

 in the following year an important memoir on the fossil Amphi- 

 bia of the Kilkenny Coal-measures. The greater part of 1S67 was 

 occupied by Wright in a expedition to the Seychelles Islands, 

 which he made with the object of studying the fauna and flora 

 of this group. Notwithstanding the loss of his collecting 

 apparatus and materials by shipwreck on the w^ay out, he 

 brought home importaiAt collections, which were described 

 subsequently by him in a long series of papers published in 

 various journals. These papers in their happy style often 

 reflect some of the southern sunshine of which Wright was so 

 fond, and the story of how he brought home a live leopard, 

 which terrified the custom-house oflicers at Suez, and trans- 

 ported living sjDecimens of the fish Haplochilus Playfairii Gthr. 

 from the Se3'chelles to France possess anecdotal as well as 

 scientific interest. He spent the spring of 1868 in Sicily 

 collecting with Haliday, and the autumn of the same year 

 dredging off the coast of Portugal. The spoils of these tours 

 were also described, and the papers dealing with them form 

 very interesting reading for naturalists, not only on account 

 of the scientific results obtained, but also of the enthusiasm 

 for nature which appears in every line. 



In 1869 Wright w^as appointed University Professor of- 

 Botany and Keeper of the Herbarium in Trinity College. 

 During the first years of his professorship he was still engaged 

 in work on his Seychelles and South European collections. 

 In 1877 Wright commenced to publish a series of memoirs on 

 the structure and development of Algae, which won the appre- 

 ciative recognition of Bornet in 1879. The value of his work 

 was enhanced by the fact that it was constantl}^ controlled by 

 observations on living specimens, a feature, according to 

 Bornet, then exceptional in the work of British algologists. The 

 work on Algae was put aside to draw up the Report, with Th. 

 Studer, on the Alcyonaria of the Ort//r7/^<:r expedition. This 

 was not completed till 1888. During this time Wright spent a 

 great deal of energy on arranging the Herbarium, and if it had 



