20 Alexander Goodman More. [issi 



During his first year at Cambridge he purchased 

 Sovverby's " English Botany," Babington's Manual, Par- 

 nell's "Grasses," and Harvey's "Algae," besides taking in 

 the " Botanical Gazette/' This shows that he was now 

 beginning to study Botany in earnest. One of his first steps 

 on returning from Castle Taylor to Bembridge in 1850, had 

 been to procure a copy of Hooker and Arnott's "British 

 Flora." The want of such a manual had, of course, been 

 much felt during the summer in Ireland, when his interest 

 in botany had first been awakened by the wild plants at a 

 distance from libraries or books of reference. His zoological 

 library had received a most welcome accession about the 

 same time, Yarrell's " British Birds" having been sent him 

 (during his absence at Castle Taylor) by his old school- 

 fellow " Hodgson major." He now added besides, to his 

 collection, M'Gillivray's "British Birds," Yarrell's "British 

 Fishes," Bell's " Crustacea,'* and Carpenter's " Physio- 

 logy," subscribed to the " Insecta Britannica," and began 

 to read Sir Charles Lyell's " Principles of Geology," and 

 other books on the last-named science. 



Once more the summer was spent amid the varied 

 fascinations of Castle Taylor. With his parents and sister, 

 he stayed there for four months, from the end of May to 

 the close of September. Botany now occupied much more 

 of his time than during the former visit, and a good part 

 of the material published four years afterwards in his 

 Paper on the "Flora of Castle Taylor " was collected at this 

 time. His most gratifying botanical discovery in 1851, 

 was that of Viola stagnina, not only a new plant to the 

 Irish Flora, but one which had not hitherto been satisfac- 

 torily made out as a British species. It was first recorded 

 (in the " Phytologist" and " Annals of Natural History ") 

 by Professor Babington, as "a new British Viola," on 

 the strength of its discovery in Ireland by Mr. More. He 

 found it by a " turlough " near Garryland, on ground 

 where, the summer before, he had picnicked and shot 

 partridge, inspected a silvermine, and caught perch " with 

 a fly," little dreaming how near at hand lay his first real 

 botanical prize. 



Yet it is doubtful whether he would not, on the whole, 



