The Rev. Dr. Hincks on the Flora of Ireland. 11 
exertions of the Right Hon. J. Foster, Speaker of the House 
of Commons, who had long been a zealous promoter of botany, 
and was considered to be well acquainted with it as a science. 
In 1801 Dr. Scott was elected professor in the College, and the 
board which has the direction of the College funds deter- 
mined on having a suitable garden of their own, and engaged 
Mr. Mackay as curator, who came to Ireland about 1803 or1804. 
In 1807 the proprietors of the Cork imstitution determined 
on having a garden, and engaged Mr. James Drummond as 
their curator. Previously to this, Mr. Templeton had a list 
of 815 species of phenogamous plants with their habitats, 
whilst his list of mosses, lichens, fuci, and fungi, was even 
more extensive in proportion. Thus early too, Miss Hut- 
chins also had devoted herself to botanical pursuits, and had 
carefully examined the neighbourhood of Bantry Bay for 
phenogamous plants, though her chief discoveries were in 
the Algz. The county surveys were at this time publishing 
under the auspices of the Dublin Society, in some of which 
lists of rare plants were given. It has been objected that 
the natural history part of these surveys is of little use, but 
it should be remembered that agriculture and statistics were 
the chief object, and we may surely ask whether the county 
surveys of England and Scotland displayed a more accurate 
knowledge of natural history? I date 1804 as the period 
from which Mr. Mackay’s labours commenced, and I think 
I have a right to conclude, not only that the botany of Ire- 
land was tolerably well known before he came, but also that 
if a considerable desire of promoting the science had not 
been previously formed, the parliament, the Dublin Society, 
and the heads of the university would not have incurred such 
a heavy expense as to establish two gardens, maintain two 
_professors, and employ two able curators. It was not these 
gentlemen who first formed the taste, but their engagement 
was the result of its having been already formed. The Dub- 
lin Society not only had their garden, but they employed an 
under gardener in going through the country, and enabled 
their professor to travel in the west, publishing the result of 
his tour. In like manner the College employed Mr. Mac- 
kay in visiting the south and west, and the Cork institution 
sent Mr. Drummond into the west of their county and the 
county of Kerry. Mr. Mackay’s catalogue of rare plants, 
printed in 1806, and Mr. Drummond’s list of the plants of 
the county Cork, printed in 1810, both at the expense of 
the Dublin Society, show the result of these missions. It is 
no reflection on these gentlemen to observe, that having been 
employed for the purpose, they were able to do more than 
