358 Royal Irish Academy. 



botanists for reference. The Society is much indebted to Mrs. 

 Riley of Papplewick, Notts, for a complete collection of British 

 Ferns, comprising all the genera, species, and varieties ; to the Rev. 

 W. T. Bree, for specimens of Aspidium rigidum, fram the original 

 station at Ingleborough, Yorkshire ; and to Mr. J. Tatham, jun., of 

 Settle, Yorkshire, for numerous specimens of the same species, col- 

 lected by him on the hills in that vicinity. To the kindness of the 

 Rev. A. Bloxam, the Society is indebted for specimens of a plant new 

 to the British Flora, viz. Myriophyllum alterniflorum, discovered by 

 him at Twy cross, Leicestershire, in June 1839 ; and to Dr. Mac- 

 reight, V.P., for additional specimens of Spartina alterniflora. The 

 Council being desirous of forming an Herbarium of British Crypto- 

 gamic Plants, called the attention of the members to collecting the 

 several tribes. Donations of nearly 6000 Foreign Plants were an- 

 nounced. — March 25, 1840. 



KOYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



A paper was read by Jonathan Osborne, M.D., on Aristotle's Hi- 

 story of Animals. 



Dr. Osborne commenced by observing, that this work was com- 

 posed under circumstances more favourable to the acquisition of na- 

 tural knowledge than any work on the subject ever published. Ac- 

 cording to Pliny, some thousands of men were placed at the disposal 

 of the author, throughout Greece and Asia, — comprising persons con- 

 nected with hunting and fishing, or who had the care of cattle, fish 

 ponds or apiaries, — in order that he might obtain information from 

 all these quarters, ne quid usquam gentium ignoraretur ab eo : and 

 according to Athenaeus, the same prince gave him, on account of the 

 expenses incurred in composing it, 800 talents, — a sum, which, taken 

 at the lowest, that is, the lesser Attic talent, amounts to above 

 79,000/. The work, composed under such auspices, is such as might 

 have been expected. The extent of the observations is prodigious ; 

 and we cannot read far in any part of it, without being constrained 

 to exclaim with Cicero, Quis omnium doctior, quis acutior, quis in re- 

 bus vel inveniendis vel judicandis acrior Aristotele ? 



Shortly after the introduction of Greek literature to Europe, and 

 when this book was first printed, those sciences which have nature 

 for their object were in the lowest condition. There was at that 

 time no taste diffused for the study of zoology or comparative ana- 

 tomy ; and at later periods, when the value of these studies came to 

 be better appreciated, the Aristotelian philosophy had fallen into 



