FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST OF IRELAND. 285 



Mr. Stewart does not seem to be aware that Jiotart Brown, 

 during his residences in Ireland in 1797 and 1800, paid much 

 attention to the botany of the districts in which his regiment was 

 stationed. I was fortunate enough to pick up on a book-stall, four 

 years ago, two folio volumes containing most minute and careful 

 descriptions of 406 species of plants, originally drawn up by Brown 

 and subsequently transcribed by him. Among these are many 

 species collected by him to which the localities are appended ; and 

 these are in many instances additional to those given in the 'Flora.' 

 Cakile maritima, for example, was gathered by Brown on the beach 

 at Ballantoy, in September, 1797 : Blysmus rufus in the same 

 locality, "on salt and marshy ground occasionally covered at high- 

 water." Mr. Stewart quotes Ternpleton's localities (the only ones) 

 for Carex strict a, but adds : " The localities may be right, but there 

 are no specimens by which the correctness of the determination 

 may be tested." Brown's authority may be cited in confirmation ; 

 his description of the plant is from specimens " cultivated in Mr. 

 Ternpleton's garden, but found wild in the neighbourhood." * 



We have also in the Botanical Department of the British 

 Museum, where I have deposited the volumes above referred to, 

 Brown's journal for the year 1800, during which he was staying at 

 Londonderry ; this contains many botanical notes, and much 

 interesting personal matter, of which I hope some day to make an 

 abstract. In the Herbarium are Irish specimens, collected by 

 Brown, which relate to the 'Flora'; Drosera anglica, for example, 

 he collected in August, 1795, " in bogs between Newton -Limavady 

 and Coleraine" — a more northerly station for Derry than those 

 given by Mr. Stewart. We have also Brown's own specimens and 

 others sent by him to Banks, of Sagina maritima — a plant which, 

 although credited to George Don, who published the species under 

 that name in his 4 Herbarium Britannicum ' (fasc. vii., No. 155), was 

 first described by Brown in his MSS. in 1797 from specimens 

 u growing in bare spots by the sea- side at Ballycastle, where it 

 occurs in great abundance, flowering from July till October or 

 November. Observed also by the water-edge at Larn on August 7th, 

 1797 ; in this last place it grew mixed with other herbage, and the 

 stems were always solitary. 1 ' His own specimens from the Antrim 

 coast are dated 1795-1797, and others from him are the types of 

 'English Botany, 1 t. 2195. This was not published until 1810; I 



* While writing of Robert Brown, I cannot help regretting the inadequacy of 

 the sketch of his life published by Dr. Robert Hunt in the ' Dictionary of National 

 biography.' It is little more than a clumsy paraphrase, with some added 

 errors, of Mr. J. J. Bennett's charmingly-written obituary notice in the Linnean 

 Society's 4 Proceedings' for 1859 — a notice which is not mentioned in the list of 

 authorities given by Mr. Hunt. No reference is made to Humboldt's well- 

 known designation of Brown as M facile botanicorum princ »s "; a paper read 

 by Brown in 1791 (really in 1792 : s* Journ. Bot. 1871, pp. 321—889, where the 

 paper is printed in extemo) is said to have been " used by Dr. Withering, who was 

 at this time engaged in preparing the second edition of his * Arrangement ■ "—a 

 work which appeared in 1787 ; and other mistakes might be pointed out. It is to 

 be regretted that no English botanist should have been entrusted with the life 

 of the greatest botanist whom England has produced. 



