742 



Panegyric on Mr. M'Alla and other Irish Botanists.* By Charles 

 Farran, M.D., Honorary Fellow of King and Queen's College 

 of Physicians, Ireland. 



It was with feelings of great regret I lately read in the May num- 

 ber of the ' Phy tologist ' a paper entitled "Botanical Rambles in 

 Ireland," by Charles Carter, Esq. It contains, within a very narrow 

 space, a number of inaccuracies, I am confident committed inadver- 

 tently by the writer, and I am free to confess that the ignorance of 

 the facts connected with the subject to which he refers (and to which 

 I am now about to advert) is so very apparent, that it completely 

 exonerates the writer from wiliiil misrepresentation. Thus, for in- 

 stance, in the second paragraph of his Rambles he states " that being 

 in Clifden (Galway) he had heard of Mr. Ogilby, as an accomplished 

 naturalist and botanist, being there. He had discovered another 

 station for the beautiful Erica Mackaii, a lieath admired by all, but 

 which that gentleman (who originally found it) I am informed now 

 considers to be a mere form of the more common species," I am not 

 going to quarrel with the assertion that Mr. Ogilby is an accomplish- 

 ed botanist : that he is one of the most successful cultivators of the 

 rarer native plants is with one general consent acceded to him ; and 

 no one has viewed his fine collection with feelings of more intense 

 pleasure than myself, but giving him all the credit he deserves on 

 this head, and in addition, that he has discovered a second locality 

 for this beautiful heath, I must most emphatically deny his having 

 the slightest right, or the shadow of a claim, to be considered the dis- 

 coverer of this splendid addition to the Flora of Ireland. 



The facts connected with the discovery of this heath present a la- 

 mentable instance of men of science reaping where they had not 

 sown, enjoying a golden harvest of honours, wearing laurels (perhaps 

 heaths) they never won, from the unrequited labours of an humble 

 individual, and thus totally excluding the discoverer from any parti- 

 cipation in the credit justly due to him for his great discrimination. 

 I shall now give you. Sir, the correct account of the discovery as I 



* We feel at a loss to give a projser heading to this article, hut think the ahove 

 most appropriate. Messrs. M'Alla, .Scouler and Litton being still, we trust, in the 

 land of the living-, we at first regarded the inflates terms of their panegyrist as rather 

 objectionable ; but our neighbours of the " Green Is^e" are accustomed to use strong- 

 er terms than we more phlegmatic English: and therefore the necessary allowance 

 will be made by all our readers. We have long 1 eeii acquainted with Mr. M'Alla's 

 deserved reputation, and our best wishes attend him in all his researches. 



