122 The Irish Naturalist. Nov.-Dec, 



life, and, when later on he took up systematic and distri- 

 butional problems in botany and zoology, gave him a wide 

 and intelligent outlook, and helped to avoid that insular 

 standpoint which is often difficult to banish when one's 

 field of vision is restricted by a barrier of sea. On many 

 of these trips he had pleasant and useful companions, whose 

 comradeship ripened into life-long friendships. The names 

 which appear most frequently in his notes of travel of this 

 period and in correspondence of succeeding years are those 

 of his brother William (now rector of Ballinlough, Co. 

 Roscommon), K. D. Doyle (now an engineer in Argentina), 

 and C. F. D'Arcy, the present Archbishop of Dublin. 



France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Morocco were 

 visited in turn, as well as places nearer home, such as the 

 west of Ireland. As early as 1880 botanical notes begin to 

 creep into his sketches. His first " botanical " paper, 

 " Plant-hunting in the Dublin Mountains," published in 

 the " Irish Monthly," 1S80, was a skit, of which the idea 

 was possibly derived from Carlyle's " Sartor Resartus." 

 In the following year " Plant-hunting in the Central 

 Pyrenees," a series of five papers, was published in " Tinsley's 

 Magazine." 'I have not been able to see this in Dublin, 

 but, in spite of a suspicious similarity of title, I assume it 

 was a serious contribution. His interest in Irish botany 

 had evidently been growing during these years, for it was 

 " in the course of a week's botanizing in the County 

 Wicklow " in July, 1884, in the company of his brother 

 and the future Archbishop, that he came upon Sausstirea 

 alpina on Tonlagee over Lough Ouler, its first station in 

 eastern Ireland. This find had two important results for 

 him, for through it he made the acquaintance of A. G. 

 More, and, no doubt on the suggestion of the latter, sent 

 a note on the plant to the " Journal of Botany " — his first 

 communication to a scientific journal. The same plant 

 brought about the acquaintance of the present writer with 

 Colgan, occasioned by its discovery on the Mourne Mountains 

 four years later. It was from this time onwards, and due 

 largely to the influence of More — an adept at encouraging 

 a taste for natural science and in directing it into practical 

 channels — that he began to pay attention to local botany 



