446 The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



to excite notice. In England and Scotland, lie remarks, every town of 

 any magnitude has its Museum or Botanic Garden ; Dublin was the 

 only city in Ireland that possessed similar establishments until very 

 lately, when the spirited people of Belfast established both a Garden 

 and Museum. This is ascribed by Dr. Hincks to the general progress 

 of science, and cannot be construed into any reproach of former times ; 

 and to shew the error of comparing the state of botanical science in 

 Ireland, with that of an island in the Pacific, as some have done, 

 Dr. Hincks refers to the catalogues of Irish plants by Molyneux, Ray, 

 Slhwyd, Smith, Wade, Drummond, and others, to shew, that consider- 

 able information has been communicated on this subject prior to 

 the time of Mr. Mackay, 



Dr. Hincks then enters into an analysis of what had been done in 

 Irish botany up to 1 804, the period at which Mr. Mackay commenced 

 his labours, and does justice to many distinguished persons, whose 

 services would appear to have either been overlooked or forgotten 

 by Mr. Mackay himself, and most of those who have recently turned 

 their attention to this subject ; to render this part of the paper as 

 complete as possible, Dr. Hincks gives a numerical list of the species 

 belonging to each natural order noticed at three different periods, name- 

 ly, 1760, 1804, and 1838, including those noticed in Mr. Mackay's 

 Flora Hibernica. 



The second paper by S. Von Buch,* is on Sphceronites, or large round 

 spherical Fossils, like oranges with two poles at their extremities. 

 They are formed of numerous perforated polyhedral plates, generally 

 hexagonal, perhaps of two hundred plates in each specimen. Above 

 opens the mouth which is covered by a number of very moveable shields. 

 Below, a petiole of thin pentagonal articulations fixes the body to 

 the soil. The plates are perforated, and in some species the small 

 perforations or pores are connected by furrows somewhat like those 

 represented on the surface of Ischadites Koenigii (Murch. Sil. Syst. 

 t. 26, f. 11.) which is in fact Spheeronites Aurantium, upon which 

 an outline has been given to the grooves not belonging to them. 



It would be difficult to comprehend the character of these fossils 

 without the assistance of plates, which are not given in the annals. 

 These curious organic bodies whose remains are found only in 



* Read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, March ] 6, 1840. 



