THE FLORA OF NORTH-EASTERN IRELAND. 



A Flora of the North-East of Ireland. By S. A. Stewart, F.B.S., and 

 the late T. H. Corry, M.A. Cr. Svo, pp. 368. Belfast : Naturalists' Field 

 Club, 50, King Street ; Cambridge : Macmillan & Bowes. 5s. 6d. 



Although our special province of record does not include North- 

 East Ireland, yet, to the topographical botanist for purposes of com- 

 parative study, a critical flora — if well done — for an area much the 

 same in extent as the county of broad acres, must always have con- 

 siderable interest and value. On these grounds, being indisputably 

 excellent in its performance, this, the work of two thorough naturalists 

 — one of whom, of the greatest promise, the late T. H. Corry, met with 

 his death by drowning in Lough Gill, Sligo, under most lamentable 

 circumstances — calls for a somewhat extended analysis at our hands. 



The flora proper fills some 270 pages, and is prefaced by thirty 

 pages of Introduction, in which the History, Bibliography, Climate, 

 and Geology are all too briefly dealt with. In addition, biographies 

 of some famous North Irish botanists— John Templeton, Dr. David 

 Moore, together with others who must remain connected with its 

 botany though not born in Ireland, Dr. G. Dickie and Prof. Ralph 

 Tate — are given. Down, Antrim, and Derry are the three counties 

 regarded as North-East Ireland, but since the Mosses and Hepatics 

 (366 in number) are included in the total of 1,169 species (803 

 Flowering Plants and Ferns) dealt with in such a comparatively 

 limited space, the stations enumerated for each species, and the 

 cognate observations, are anything but exhaustive. This, however, is 

 not quite such blameworthy sketchiness as may be inferred from the 

 bald statement of the fact, since it is due (in part, at least) to the view's 

 held by the compilers, views in which we heartily coincide — that 

 precision and established truth of statement is of immensely greater 

 value than the most attractive copiousness. To the botanical reader 

 possessed of some phyto-geographical knowledge at start, the perusal 

 of the pages of the flora carries with it an increasing confidence in 

 the sterling reliability of the compilers ; and this despite a something 

 prima facie repellant — and than this we know no higher praise : the 

 book in the hand of a plant-lover conquers prejudice born of certain 

 innovations. The great blot of the book is its want of a Map ; the 

 novel feature is the unwise duplication of Indices, for there are Jive (!) 

 and the work itself is — in our view unnecessarily — split up into two 

 sections. First, there is a Topographical Index — for a precedent 

 one may go back to Leighton's Shropshire Flora — indicating roughly 

 the locale of the plant-stations cited, and some of the names are 

 confusing. ' Cranmore,' for example, is not a village, as strangers 

 might expect, nor a common, but a gentleman's ' demesne,' and the 



Jan. 1889. 



