2()6 The Irish Nahiralist. December, 



REVIEWS. 



THE FLORA OF DUBLIN, 



nora of the County Dublin : Flowering Plants, Higher Crypto- 

 gams, and Characeae. By Nathaniel Colgan. M.R.I A. Pp. Ixx + 

 324. Map. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis <5l Co-, I^td. 1904. Price, 

 I2J-. ^d, net. 



The County of Dublin, though one of the smallest coraital divisions 

 of Ireland, has long been known to have a large and varied flora, and 

 from the earliest period of Irish botany its plants have figured in learned 

 books. The area surrounding the metropolis has naturally been the 

 playground of hiberniau phytologists ; and their recreations are reflected 

 in the botanical literature of their day. From Threlkeld to Colgan, the 

 authors of books on Irish botany have mostly been resident in Dublin ; 

 and as a consequence, the published records of Dublin plants bulk far 

 heavier than those of any other part of the country. Yet, curiously 

 enough, although the promontory of Howth and the island of Lambay 

 have been monographed, no flora (in the modern acceptation of that 

 term) of the whole county has ever been attempted, for we can hardly 

 admit as such the ** List of the Flowering Plants of Dublin and Wicklow " 

 hurriedh' prepared for the British Association meeting in 1878. During 

 the last nine years, Mr. Colgan has supplemented the already existing 

 material by means of a laborious and searching exploration of every part 

 of the county, and he now presents us with a detailed account of the 

 flora in 394 octavo pages. While all who are acquainted with Mr. Colgan's 

 thorough methods anticipated a valuable and comprehensive work, few, 

 we imagine, were prepared for a book written on so elaborate a plan, or 

 published in so sumptuous a style. No work has hitherto appeared ou 

 Irish botany so detailed in its information, so critical in its treatment, or 

 so handsome in its appearance. 



The task to which Mr. Colgan set himself nine j^ears ago was by no 

 means a light one. MOvSt of the previous botanical work in the county- 

 had been of a desultory character, and although the Dublin list already 

 atl;ained to large proportions, and to some appearance of completeness, 

 the range of most of the plants in the county was still unknown, and 

 certain less accessible areas were as yet, for all practical purposes, un- 

 exploited. The thorough exploration of the county was thus in itself 

 an affair of no small labour, and to this our author attached other con- 

 ditions sufficiently onerous :— " (i) That I should see with my own eyes 

 growing, in at least one County Dublin station, and, if possible, within 

 the present century, every species admitted to the flora ; (2) that I 

 should ascertain, by personal observation in the field, their vertical 

 ranges, their flowering seasons, their durations, and their soil affinities; 

 and, finally (3), that I should collect from the lips of the country folk 

 the current popular names of such of the plants as were likely to find a 



