296 



Reviews and Notices of Boohs. 



subject, is given by Dr Jackson with a modesty and candour truly 

 admirable. The committee on this subject, indeed, find it almost 

 necessary to commence investigation at the very beginning, and to 

 limit themselves very much to the accumulation of accurate ob- 

 servations of well-attested facts. It is to be hoped that the 

 medical faculty will at once come forward and give their hearty 

 support to the Society in carrying out this object. 



Flora of Ulster and Botanist's Guide to the North of Ireland. 

 By G. Dickie, A.M., M.D., F.L.S., Professor of Botany, 

 Aberdeen. Aifcchison, Belfast, 1864. 24mo, pp. 176. 



We have here a most useful and accurate botanical guide to the 

 Hora of the north of Ireland, written by one who is already known 

 as the author of an excellent flora of Aberdeenshire. The district 

 included in the work lies to the north of the 54th parallel of lati- 

 tude, extends due west from Dundalk, and therefore includes 

 nearly the whole of Ulster, and the northern portions of Leitrim, 

 Sligo, and Mayo, belonging to Connaught. As to geological struc- 

 ture, it may be said that " Silurian formations occur in the south- 

 east ; granite in the Mourne Mountains ; in the east there is an 

 extensive mass of basalt, — chalk, greensand and oolite being here 

 and there exposed ; metamorphic and granite rocks appear on the 

 north and north-west, carboniferous limestones in the south-west, 

 and Devonian rocks in parts of the interior. The higher mountains 

 are chiefly grouped in the east, north-west, and west. The ex- 

 treme highest points are, — in County Down, Slieve Donard, 2796 

 feet ; in Donegal, Muckish and Erigal, respectively 2190 and 

 2460 feet ; in Mayo, Nephin, 2646 feet." 



The climate, in the northern parts of Ireland, which are in- 

 dented with arms of the sea, is comparatively mild and moist, and 

 the extreme ranges of temperature are moderate. The tempera- 

 ture of the Atlantic is about 3° above that of the North Sea, for 

 the six months beginning with October and ending with March ; 

 and there are many seaweeds, which indicate the milder tempera- 

 ture of the sea on the Irish coasts. 



Dr Dickie follows in his work Hooker and Arnott's British 

 Flora, and he adopts Watson's types as regards the distribution of 

 species. The general characters of the flora are thus stated : plants 

 of Germanic and Highland types, especially the former, constitute 

 a very insignificant part of the Ulster flora ; in the more northern 

 counties a few of the Scottish type are plentiful, as Empetrum 

 nigrum and Ligusticum scoticum ; a third of the entire number be- 

 long to the Atlantic type; plants of the English type form a 

 decided character in the flora. The author mentions 570 dicotyle- 



