*^2 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



In these remarks I have had Botany chiefly in view, but they 

 will apply with more or less force to every branch of modern 

 science. Take an example. Compare 6 of our leading botanists 

 of to-day with 6 of the leaders of 50 years ago. 

 Robert Brown Vines 



Henslow Scott 



Hooker Bower 



Charles Darwin Francis Darwin 



Bentham Isaac Balfour 



Babington Marshall Ward 



I will venture to say that any of the older men could have 

 told you the names of most of the species of plants you would 

 meet with in a walk. They were all round men. But I doubt 

 if any one of my 2nd list could do so. In their own departments 

 you would find each possessed of a more extensive knowledge 

 than the older men, but the field of each would be much more 

 limited. 



Let me mention the names of three men whom we may take 

 as types of Field Naturalists of the old school, John Templeton, 

 William Thompson, and Robert Patterson. They were well 

 acquainted with Nature out of doors, but neither did they 

 neglect the literature of the subject, and their enthusiasm and 

 accuracy of their knowledge and powers of observation placed 

 them in the forefront of Irish Naturalists. 



Templeton formed the scheme of embodying his encyclopaedic 

 knowledge of nature in a Natural History of his own country, 

 but the scheme was never carried out (much to our loss). Two 

 volumes of his Hibernian Flora in M.S. being all that remains 

 complete of his great enterprise. 



Thompson intended to do the same for Zoology in his 

 Natural History of Ireland, but was only able to complete his 

 3rd volume on the birds. 



Whatever might have been possible then we shall never 

 again see the whole Natural History of a country attempted by 

 one man, but there is a peculiar interest in the older books 

 which is not found in those of more modern type. Compare 



