1892] Great News from the Mountains. 373 



and urging botanists, who had almost given up the plant 

 in despair, to undertake fresh efforts for its re-discovery. 



By this time his health had for nearly three years re- 

 mained comparatively unbroken, and he had by degrees 

 regained a little strength. He was working zealously at the 

 " Cybele Hibernica," and had thoughts (unduly sanguine, 

 no doubt) of sending the book to press even so early as 

 the ensuing winter. But now, once again, his progress 

 suddenly collapsed. An asthmatic attack, beginning 

 during a short stay at Howth (June i ith-2oth), was followed 

 by a long severe illness, during which for many weeks 

 the worst fears were entertained. He rallied when hope 

 had been almost given up, and on September 26th, after 

 fourteen weeks confinement to the sick-room, was " down 

 stairs and out in chair." Sadly weakened by the long 

 prostration, he continued an invalid to the close of the 

 year, all work and even correspondence being brought to 

 a standstill. 



But the period of his illness had been marked in the 

 history of Irish botany by one noteworthy event, from 

 which his name cannot possibly be dissociated. On the 

 loth of August, a telegram received at 74, Leinster-road, 

 announced "Rubus chamaemorus re-discovered." It was 

 signed " Hart and Barrington," and Mr. Barrington him- 

 self soon followed to make the report in person. Had he 

 come either a day sooner or a day later, he would have 

 found his invalid friend unconscious and incapable of 

 hearing his story ; but on this day Mr. More was unusually 

 well, his mind was quite clear, and he listened with interest 

 and delight to the news of a discovery which had so 

 thoroughly vindicated his own firm faith. The next day he 

 relapsed into insensibility. When he ultimately recovered, 

 he remembered nothing of Mr. Barrington's visit, and the 

 story of the re-finding of Rubus chamsemorus on the 

 mountains west of Dart was as fresh as if he had never 

 before been told it. But it may be doubted whether any 

 botanical triumph achieved by himself in person gave him 

 deeper satisfaction than that which his friends, Messrs. 

 H. C. Hart and R. M. Barrington, had just recorded in 

 the "Journal of Botany " (September, 1892), as the fruits of 



