The Rev. Dr. Hincks on the Flora of Ireland, 7 



Irish Divine Mr. Heaton, who is quoted by Dr. How in the 

 Phytologia Britannica" for several plants, and also by Dr. 

 Merret. He could find no living person acquainted with so 

 many, and whether K'Eogh also made use of the same MS. 

 or not, I have found their Irish names generally to agree. 

 The number of species enumerated by Threlkeld (exclusive 

 of all Cryptogamous plants, except the Fern tribe), was 473. 

 Mackay's species in 1836 were 1054, and those of England 

 1436. When amongst those of Threlkeld we find Arbutus 

 Unedo, Dryas octopetala, Menziesia polifolia, Euphorbia Hi- 

 berna, Saxifraga umbrosa, Epipactis ensifolia, Osmunda re- 

 galis, Asplenium viride, and other rare plants, some peculiar to 

 Ireland, can we fairly say of such a country, that " its botany 

 was as much unknown as that of an island in the Pacific "? 

 May we not rather say that this collection made by Threlkeld, 

 of plants observed by himself or by his predecessors, was a re- 

 spectable foundation for future botanists to build upon ? and 

 that it should be estimated not by the knowledge of the present 

 day, but by that of the period before the introduction of the 

 Linnaean system? Amongst those whose discoveries were pre- 

 vious to Threlkeld's work, were Llhwyd and Sherard. She- 

 rard's visit, as far as I can ascertain, was in 1695 or 1696, before 

 he went abroad with Lord Howland afterwards Duke of Bed- 

 ford; and he spent part of his time at Moira, not far from Lough 

 Neagh, with Sir Arthur Rawdon. Amongst his discoveries were 

 Subularia aquatica, Epipactis grandiflora, Lithospermum mari- 

 timum, Drosera longifolia (previously by Mr. Heaton), An- 

 dromeda polifolia, and probably others I have not noticed. 

 The Murrogh of Wicklow is given by Mr. Mackay as one of 

 the habitats of Lithospermum maritimum, where it grows 

 plentifully ; and this is the habitat given by Sherard. Now 

 is it not interesting to know, that nearly a century and a half 

 before Mr. Mackay's work this habitat was known ? True, 

 the designations of the plants are not such as to lead a Lin- 

 naean botanist to recognise them without some labour ; and 

 the alphabetical arrangement is bad, though perhaps not 

 much worse than if the author had adopted Gerard's, C. 

 Bauhin's, or even Ray's arrangement; and I cannot help 

 regretting that Mr. Mackay did not consider it an object to 

 study Threlkeld's work, and make it the foundation of his 

 labours. The appendix was supplied by Dr. Thomas Moly- 

 neux, the brother of Locke's distinguished friend, and a man 

 more known for his exertions to promote science in Ireland 

 than for the honour of a baronetage, still enjoyed by his 

 descendant. This Appendix contains a more bare list of the 

 plants found than Threlkeld's own, and a few are thus given 



