xiv INTR OB UCTIOK 



Caleb Threlkeld, M.D., was an English Dissenting Minister who 

 settled in Dublin, and combined with his clerical profession the duties of 

 a medical doctor. His Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum was an attempt 

 to give an account of Irish botany, but is very deficient in localities, and 

 in fact partakes more of the character of an Herbal than a Flora. Dr. 

 Thomas Molyneux supplied an appendix to the work, with notes of a 

 good number of rare plants. 



The Herbal of Dr. K'Eogh, of Cork, appeared in 1735, but has little 

 scientific value. Harris's Account of County Down was published in 

 1744, and is interesting for many reasons, but specially so to local 

 botanists as it supplies the earliest attempt at a list of plants for a northern 

 district. Smith's Antient and Present State of County Keny bears date 

 1766, his County Cork, 1770, and his County Waterford, 1772. Eutty's 

 Natural History of County Dublin appeared in 1772. These books give 

 county lists of the more important plants, but they all contain numerous 

 errors. 



It will be seen fi-om what has been so briefly stated that when botanical 

 science was making in England its great advance Ireland lagged behind. 

 This lack of zeal and effort on behalf of one of the most delightful studies 

 is to be lamented, but the causes are not far to seek. Facilities for 

 travel were much less, and there was much more difiiculty in penetrating 

 to the remote recesses, and the mountain districts of a pertiu'bed country 

 such as Ireland. It is needless to say that here there has always been 

 less wealth, and as a consequence less facilities, less leisure, and less 

 inclination for abstract pursuits. 



The wave of scientific progress did, nevertheless, reach Ireland, and 

 the close of the eighteenth and commencement of the nineteenth century 

 saw this coimtry represented by a number of botanists of high repute. 

 Dublin, of course, as the centre of the learning and the wealth of the 

 coimtry took the lead. Here in the north the wave was longer in run- 

 ning up, and Mr. Templeton was for many years the only conspicuous 

 botanical student in Ulster. The flowing tide was running, however, 

 and in 1821 Belfast had the honoTir of originating the first Provincial 

 scientific society in Ireland. In the throng, and amid the din of com- 

 mercial pui'suits some citizens found time and inclination to engage in 

 scientific research, and the Belfast Natural History Society was formed. 

 The commencement was humble, and the eight founders of the society 

 met in a private room for the discussion of scientific subjects. The pro- 

 gress of this society was not rapid. No propaganda was attempted, but 

 there was a quiet attraction which speedily led to enlargement of nimi- 

 bers. Kindred societies in due time took the field, until in 1863 the 

 Belfast Naturalists' Field Club was established with the express pm-pose, 

 which to the present has been loyally maintained, of promoting local 

 scientific investigations. The Botanical and Horticultural Society was 

 foimded in 1827, and the Botanic Gardens were formed with the avowed 

 object of affording opportimities for the cultivation of botanical science, 

 and providing a desirable place of recreation. That the society has 

 succeeded in the latter object cannot be questioned, but the fonner 



