M INTRODUCTION. 



Iriflh lists several already known. Thus stimulated, Dr. Moore undertook, 

 with the aid of a money grant from the Eoyal Irish Academy, to 

 catalogue the Irish scale mosses. This work was accomplished in 1876, 

 when the Report on Irish Hepaticae appeared in the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Irish Academy. This Report took the form of a descriptive list 

 of the plants, with localities, and included 137 species, being 52 additional 

 to those enumerated by Taylor forty years previously. Of this enumera- 

 tion Dr. Moore says : "I have collected nearly every one of the plants 

 with my own hands, having for this purpose travelled over a large 

 portion of Ireland, from east to west, and from north to south, and from 

 the sea level to the tops of the highest mountains." 



In manner Dr. Moore was unassuming, and he gave a cordial welcome 

 to other workers in the same field. His mental characteristics were such 

 as are usually thought to distinguish his countrymen — shrewd common 

 sense, and a constancy of purpose that courts success and will not be 

 denied. There was no mistaking his nationality. After fifty years 

 fanuliar intercoizrse there was no imitation of the mellifluous tones of the 

 Dubliner, and the straightforward directness of his speech, as well as the 

 accent, betrayed the North Briton. 

 Db. Gbobge Dickie, F.R.S., F.L.S., etc. 



Bom at Aberdeen in 1813, and graduated M.A. in Marischal College in 

 1830. After two years study in the Medical School of Aberdeen he went 

 to Edinburgh, and entered the Brown Square School of Medicine, in 

 which he gained, in 1833 the Medal for Pathology and Practice of Medi- 

 cine. In 1834 he became M.R.C.S. of London, and in 1842 received the 

 honorary degree of M.D. from King's College, Aberdeen. 



Dr. Dickie was bom a naturalist, and though he practiced medicine for 

 a short time in his native city, yet he lost no time in obtaining employ- 

 ment more congenial to his tastes. In 1839 he was appointed Lecturer 

 on Botany in King's College, and subsequently on Materia Medica, and 

 on Zoology. In addition he held the ofl5.ce of Librarian to the University. 

 When the Govemment originated the Irish Queen's Colleges Dr. Dickie 

 was selected to fill the Chair of Natural History in Belfast, and in 1849 

 he came to Ireland, where he was required to deliver lectures on Botany, 

 Zoology, Geology, and Physical Geography. In 1856 he was married to 

 Miss Low of Aberdeen, who survived him with six children. 



On the union, in 1860, of Marischal College and King's College, to 

 form the new University of Aberdeen, Dr. Dickie was appointed to the 

 newly instituted Professorship of Botany. Soon after his return to Aber- 

 deen he was attacked by a severe and dangerous illness which resulted in 

 chronic bronchitis, accompanied with increasing deafness. This disease, 

 which was caught while botanising in Braemar, with his students, in bad 

 weather, was never shaken off, though he continued to fulfil the duties of 

 his professorship till 1877, when he found it necessary to resign his chair. 

 The relief, thus obtained, enabled him to perform more or less botanical 

 work till within a short time of his death, which occurred in July 1882, 

 from a eevere attack of bronchitis. 



