lo6 The Irish Naturalist. [April, 



In the compass of a few pages Dr. Wright traces the history of the 

 Herbarium and the Botanical School for upwards of a century, from the 

 institution of the botanical professorship in 1785, to the foundation of 

 the laboratory in 1893. The most prominent figures brought before us 

 in this rapid survey are Dr. Edward Hill, first professor of the Botanical 

 School ; Dr. William AUman, one of the earliest teachers of the Natural 

 System in the Three Kingdoms; James T. Macka}^, the w^ell- known 

 author of Flora Hibernica\ Dr. Thomas Coulter, who made botanical 

 explorations in California and Central Mexico; and, last and most 

 illustrious of all, Dr. William H. Harvey, facile princeps amongst British 

 botanists of the century in knowledge of the sea-weeds of the globe. 

 Harvey's indefagitable zeal in building up the Trinity College Herbarium 

 is well shown by some extracts given by Dr. Wright from the memoir 

 published in 1869. No one can read this admirable memoir, almost 

 entirely made up of selections from his wide correspondence, without 

 conceiving a strong esteem, not to say affection, for the gifted Quaker 

 botanist who has done so much to illustrate by his pencil no less than 

 his pen, the flowering plants of the Cape and the marine algae of 

 Australia and the South Seas. 



It would appear from an extract given us by Dr. Wright from Harvey's 

 evidence before the Dublin University Commission of 1853, that the 

 College herbarium then contained upwards of 45,000 species. Since that 

 date the collection has grown considerably and still continues to grow ; 

 but as lack of funds and consequent lack of skilled assistance has pre- 

 vented the thorough arrangement of the herbarium, its actual extent 

 can only be surmised. It is satisfactory to learn, however, that the 

 department of algse contains all, or almost all the species described by 

 Harvey in his classical works, Phycologia Britannica, Nereis Americana, 

 Nereis Australis and Phycologia Aiistralis, and that the large collection of 

 specimens brought together for the preparation of his Flora Capensis is in 

 fairly good order. It is now thirty years since Harvey's death brought 

 the Cape Flora to an abrupt close, at the end of the Composita. Is there 

 no rich and patriotic South African to provide the funds for the com- 

 pletion of this work, which it seems hopeless to expect either the 

 imperial or the colonial government to take in hand } The extent of 

 the General Herbarium of Phanerogams in Trinity College is well 

 shown in the rough geographical index given by Dr. Wright. Almost 

 all quarters of the globe appear to be represented in the collection, the 

 only striking blank being Siberia. 



In a future number of these Notes we trust that we may find a brief 

 history of the College Botanic Garden at Ball's Bridge. 



