76 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Cork, and compiled a list of 163 species of mosses which he collected in these 

 counties. There are 9 Sphagnums amongst the number. This list, which 

 contains much valuable matter, is very interesting. It was published in the 

 '•'Transactions" of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vii, in 1863, under 

 the title " Gleanings among the Irish Cryptogams." 



Samuel Alexander Stewart, of Belfast (1826-1910), began the study of 

 mosses in 1862, and contributed several valuable papers on the subject to 

 the " Proceedings " of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, and of the Boyal 

 Irish Academy, his first communication being to the former in the form of 

 " A List of the Mosses of the North-East of Ireland" (1875), which gives a 

 list of 238 species. A supplement to the foregoing appeared nine years after- 

 wards (1884), in which he added 37 species, thus bringing up the total for the 

 district to 275. 



In the year 188S the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club published " A Flora 

 of the North-East of Ireland," by S. A. Stewart and T. Ff. Corry, of which 

 53 pages are devoted to the mosses of the counties Down, Antrim, aud Derry. 

 This gives a list of 293 species, with 28 varieties for the three counties. A 

 supplement to this was issued in 1894 by Stewart and B. LI. Praeger, in which 

 the list of mosses for the district was brought up to 301. The large number 

 of localities given for each species renders this a most valuable work. 



Shortly after the appearance of the Flora and Supplement, Stewart drew 

 up a Beport on the Botany of South Clare and the Shannon, which appeared 

 in the " Proceedings" of the Boyal Irish Academy in 1889, in which is a list 

 of 84 species and 3 varieties of mosses found in the district. In 1884 Stewart 

 visited the island of Bathlin, north of the coast of Antrim, and drew up a 

 report on the botany of the island, which was presented to and published in 

 the " Proceedings " of the Boyal Irish Academy for the same year ; it gives 

 a list of 83 mosses which he found in Bathlin. 



Greenwood Pirn, m.a., f.l.s., was born at Monkstown, Co Dublin. 4th May, 

 1851, and died at the same place, 14th November, 1906. In addition to 

 mycology, he studied mosses in Dublin, Wicklow, and Kerry. His copy of 

 Berkeley's " Handbook," on the margins of which he kept records of what 

 he collected and their localities, is now in my possession. 



John Henry Davies was born. 1838, at Warrington, and died at Belfast, 

 1909. He lived during fifty years in Ireland, and worked diligently on the 

 mosses. The results of his work appear in articles that from time to time he 

 contributed to the pages of the " Phytologist " and " Irish Naturalist." Many 

 of his records are given in Stewart and Corry 's " Flora of the North-East of 

 Ireland." In early life he corresponded with William Wilson, and kept up 

 the intimacy till Wilson's death. In 1901 he was fortunate in discovering on 



