Dr Lauder Lindsay on the Flora of Iceland. 65 
mens actually collected anew in Iceland, to draw up a perfectly 
accurate and reliable Flora of Iceland. Dr Hooker, than whom 
there is no more competent authority on such a subject, either in 
Britain or out of it, informs me that “ we have no good Flora 
of Iceland.” This arises from a variety of causes to which 
I would direct attention. So far as I am aware, the only 
separate volume on the Flora of Iceland is that of Dr Hjalta- 
lin, published in 1830. It is written in Icelandic by a native 
Icelander now dead. He was one of the provincial or district 
surgeons of Iceland, appointed to office by the Danish Govern- 
ment; a brother of the present Physician-general of Ice- 
land, my friend Dr Jén Hjaltalin; and I was informed in 
Reykjavik, not only an enthusiastic but an accomplished 
botanist, and an accurate observer, whose statements may be 
relied on. His volume gives the native Icelandic names of 
the plants described, and he enters fully on the subject of their 
economic uses. It is to be presumed that this volume con- 
tains, as it purports, a full list of the plants of the whole 
island, as known up to the date of publication in 1830; and 
also that due advantage had been taken in its compila- 
tion of the lists published by previous observers— British or 
foreign. This work of Hjaltalin seems to be quite unknown 
in Britain. I do not find it mentioned in foreign catalogues 
of works on botany or natural history; and from inquiries 
made by me there, it appears to be equally scarce in Iceland 
and Denmark. I was fortunate enough, however, to have 
the loan of a copy from the National Library of Reykjavik 
during the whole period of my stay in that town, and I availed 
myself of the opportunity of transcribing the names of all the 
plants mentioned therein. 
The list of the plants of Iceland most familiar to British, 
and apparently also to continental botanists, is that of Sir 
William Hooker, who visited Iceland in 1809, and whose 
“Journal” was published in 1813. This list was repro- 
duced in Sir George Mackenzie’s “ Travels,” which were 
published in 1811. Sir William Hooker appears to have 
incorporated in his list that of Zoega, which was published 
in Olafssen and Povelsen’s Travels in 1772; and, doubtless, 
he also availed himself of the lists of Mohr, Palsson, and 
NEW SERIES.—VOL, XIV. NO. I.—JuLy 1861, I 
