xvi INTRODUCTION. 



to suppose that he would have taken his place amongst the foremost in 

 promoting a knowledge of the local flora. 



Space permits only this rapid review of some of the more prominent of 

 those who in bygone times delighted in searching out our native plants. 

 A few are included who, though still living, have finished their work 

 amongst us, or have permanently left the locality. The major part have 

 passed to the Brighter Land. This volume is the outcome of the laboin-s 

 of many workers, and without such would not have been possible in its 

 present fulness. Its pages show that there are amongst us still those who 

 are doing valuable work, and who are capable of still fmther advancing 

 our knowledge. It will remain for some future Mnriter to tell of their suc- 

 cess, and to estimate their services accordingly. 



To complete the foregoing historical sketch a few biographical notes of 

 former local botanical leaders seem necessary. 

 *JoHN Templeton. 



Bom in Belfast in 1766. The Templeton family had been settled at 

 Orange Grove, Malone, near this town, since the early part of the 17th 

 century, and there Mr. Templeton constantly resided after his father's 

 death. To this place he gave the name of Cranmore (Crann-more, i.e. 

 the Great Tree), in honour of the very fine chestnut trees in front of the 

 house. His love of IS'ature was early developed, and in boyhood he took 

 the greatest delight in a book of natoiral history containing pictui-es of 

 birds and other animals. These he was in the habit of copying and 

 comparing with specimens sent him by numerous friends who knew his 

 tastes. Before he was twenty years of age he had commenced to cultivate 

 flowers, and his fondness for horticultm-e would seem to have become an 

 abiding passion. He obtained from various parts of the world rare and 

 valuable plants and seeds, which he brought into his garden and 

 endeavoured to naturalise in this climate. His collection of trees was 

 amongst the most varied ever raised in so small a space. 



Mr. Templeton was not, however, merely a cultivator, but he studied 

 botany with enthusiasm as a science, and became a valued correspondent 

 of the leading botanists of his time. By Sir Joseph Banks he was invited 

 to New Holland, with a good salary, and a large grant of land, but his 

 attachment to his native country and to his family caused him to decline 

 the tempting offer. In 1795 he discovered Hota hibernica, near Belfast, 

 a plant which, though now foimd in several other localities, still ranks 

 amongst the rarest British species. The Eoyal DubHn Society awarded 

 him a prize of five guineas for this discovery. He it was also who first 

 detected the red broom rape [Orobanche rubra) on the Cave Hill ; like the 

 preceding this was not known previously, and still remains a rare plant, 

 though not now confined to the Cave Hill. Mr. Templeton also had the 

 further honour of being the discoverer of a number of cryptogamic plants, 

 and one of the mountain species of mosses bears his name — Entosthodon 

 Templetoni. At the close of the last, and early in the present century, 



* For many details relating to Mr. Templeton we are indebted to Anniversary- 

 Address to Belf. Nat. Hist. Soc, May 1827, by the President, Eev. T. D. Hincks, 

 see Mag. Nat. Hist., vols. I. and II., 1828 and 1829. 



