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PREFACE. 



Another year has closed. Its botanical events have not been 

 without interest : they have been faithfully chronicled in the pages 

 of the ' Phy tologist.' 



The most prominent subject has been the failure of the potato : 

 and unwilling as I have shown myself to become alarmist on this 

 subject, I cannot shut my eyes to the consequences it has produced. 

 The present deplorable state of Ireland appears mainly, if not entire- 

 ly, attributable to this cause. What is wanted for that wretched 

 country is not hypothesis, but food, and he who gives according to 

 his ability, to save his wretched fellow-creatures from starvation, will 

 surely reap the reward of an approving conscience. It is in vain for 

 us to discuss problems either in politics or Natural History while the 

 objects interested in the discussion are perishing around us. 



The disease in question, although so greatly aggravated of late, is 

 not of that recent date which has been generally imagined. When 

 in the west of Ireland, in 1839, I found that the potato had almost 

 entirely failed ; many fields exhibited large, bare patches, where the 

 haulm had disappeared, and in other places the haulm was black- 

 ened, the leaves presenting an appearance of being scorched or frost- 

 bitten. In the vicinity of Waterford the crop, though not perhaps so 

 abundant as in former years, was sufficient to allow a large export 

 to the west. The price at Waterford was 3d. ^ stone of 14 fts., 

 while at Clifden it was 7^d., a difference swhich of course led to the 

 export of large quantities. These remarks were printed at the time. 



