24 The Irish Natiwalist. February, 
Templeton is not mentioned in Tate's " Flora Bel- 
fastiensis," published in 1863, at Belfast. The earliest 
published reference to his MSS. is in the " Flora of Ulster," 
by Dickie, published in 1864, where there is this indefinite 
allusion — " To the friends of the late Mr. Templeton I 
am indebted for permission to take notes of species recorded 
in his manuscript," The MS. was most likely the small 
volume now in the Royal Irish Academy Library. 
In the introduction to the " Flora of the North-east of 
Ireland " (1888), there is a brief biographical sketch of 
Templeton, but no mention of any MS. However, in a 
" vSupplement " to the Flora (1894), there is this note — 
" Templeton, John, four volumes of his ' Flora Hibernica ' 
at present deposited with the Belfast Natural History and 
Philosophical Society, contain much original matter, which 
could not be worked out in time for the present paper." 
This fixes the approximate date of the MSS. being loaned 
to the Belfast Museum. They were not known to the 
authors of the " Cybele Hibernica" in 1866, while in the 
second edition (1898) the small volume of the MSS. in 
R.I. A. Library is described in the Index of Authors under 
its full title — Catalogue of the Native Plants of Ireland, by 
John Templeton, a.l.s. 
Rt. Rev. Richard Mant, d.d., son of Rev. Richard Mant, 
born at Southampton, 12th February, 1776, died at Bally- 
money, Co. Antrim, 1848, and was buried at Hillsborough. 
He had been a Scholar of Winchester, and then Fellow of 
Oriel, Oxford, and in 1820 became Bishop of Killaloe, 
and in 1823, Bishop of Down, and lived at Holywood in a 
residence now incorporated with the Palace Barracks. 
He was distinguished as a divine and commentator on the 
Bible, an accomplished preacher, and a sacred poet. From 
his college days he was a keen botanist, and was familiar 
with all our native plants. There is a good life-sized 
portrait of him in Culloden House, Cultra. 
My father, who was one of his examining chaplains, 
used to tell a good anecdote about Mant and a Belfast 
gentleman ; one day after dinner as the party strolled 
round the garden, the Bishop's Presbyterian friend plucked 
a leaf of the plant Aegopodium Podagraria, and presenting 
