LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. cv 
at Woburn Abbey, which has given rise to a splendid work, the 
‘ Salicetum Woburnense,’ in which we have a standard set of figures 
of all our native, amongst many exotic, species, which give to the 
British naturalist an advantage over all that Continental authors 
have published on the subject; and to them I refer in every in- 
stance, and with great satisfaction. The arrangement of the species 
in the ‘Salicetum’ is due to the botanical skill and knowledge of 
Mr. Forbes, head gardener at Woburn; and that department does 
him great credit.” 
James Townsend Mackay, LL.D., M.R.I.A., was elected an Asso- 
ciate so long ago as December 2, 1806. He died February 25th 
1862, aged 86. 
He was born at Kircaldy, Fifeshire, where he received the ordi- 
nary education afforded at parochial schools. He was bred to the 
occupation of a gardener, and held a situation in Scotland in that 
capacity before he went to Ireland in 1803. At that time the 
authorities of Trinity College, Dublin, had determined upon the for- 
mation of a botanical garden to aid the lectures of the Professor 
of Botany, a chair then held by Dr. Scott. To this gentleman 
Dr. Mackay was recommended as a suitable person to lay out the 
gardens, which he did soon afterwards, on his being appointed cu- 
rator, a situation which he held from 1806 to 1862. 
In the years 1804 and 1805, Dr. Mackay made tours through the 
western parts, more especially, of Ireland, for the purpose of observ- 
ing the indigenous plants, which at that period were but imperfectly 
known. The results of these journeyings were published in a cata- 
logue of the rarer plants of Ireland, in 1806, in the fifth volume of 
the ‘Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society.’ And on a subse- 
quent occasion, when better acquainted with the indigenous flora, 
he gave for publication, to the Royal Irish Academy (of which 
learned body he was then a member), a catalogue of all the phenoga- 
mous plants and ferns known to him as native. These contributions, 
however, were but preparatory to his principal work, namely the 
‘Flora Hibernica,’ published in 1836. In this work he edited only 
the phenogamous plants, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Harvey undertaking 
the Cryptogamia. 
These, with one or two short papers communicated to the British 
Association, are, I believe, his only contributions to botanical science. 
In 1850 the Board and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, con- 
ferred on him the title of LL.D. 
