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REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 



I. — Flora Hibemica, co?nprising the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Cha- 

 racece, Musci, Hepaticce, Lichenes, and Alga; of Ireland, arrang- 

 ed according to the Natural System, with a Synopsis of the Gene- 

 ra according to the Linnxan System. By James Townsend 

 Mackay, M. R. I. A. &c. 8vo. Dublin, 1836. 



An Irish Flora has been long felt to be a desideratum. While 

 Great Britain was glutted, as it were, with descriptions of its vege- 

 table productions, no attempt was made even to enumerate the 

 plants of Ireland, until 1824, when the worthy author of the pre- 

 sent volume gave to the Royal Irish Academy, his Catalogue of the 

 Phsenogamous Plants and Ferns which he had then ascertained to 

 be natives of the country. This catalogue was, he informs us, 

 the result of twenty years observation, and in the preface he an- 

 nounced his intention of extending it into a complete Flora. Such 

 a work has been therefore looked for at his hands, and although 

 it is somewhat of the latest in its appearance, we receive it 

 with a cordial welcome. It seems from a paragraph in the intro- 

 duction that, " in 1833, a small volume appeared entitled the Irish 

 Flora, containing short descriptions of most of the Phaenogamous 

 Plants and Ferns of Ireland that were known up to that time." This 

 work we have never seen. 



The Flora Hibernica is arranged according to the Natural System, 

 and is divided into three parts ; the first containing the flowering 

 plants and ferns ; the second, the Musci, Hepatica;, and Lichenes ; 

 and the third, the Alga?. In regard to the first part, (which is pre- 

 ceded by a synopsis of the genera according to the Linnsean method,) 

 the best idea we can give of the manner in which it is executed is 

 to say that, with the exception of the arrangement, the whole is 

 constructed on the model of the British Flora. We must not be un- 

 derstood as bringing any charge of plagiarism against Mr Mackay, 

 for he candidly informs the reader that his descriptions both of ge- 



