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REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 
I. Flora Hibernica, comprising the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Cha- 
racece, Musci, Hepaticce, Lichenes, and Algce of Ireland, arrang- 
ed according to the Natural System, with a Synopsis of the Gene- 
ra according to the Linncean System. By JAMES TOWNSEND 
MACKAY, M. R. I. A. &c. 8vo. Dublin, 1836. 
AN Irish F^>ra 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, Hepaticce, and Lichenes ; 
and the third, the Algce. In regard to the first part, (which is pre- 
ceded by a synopsis of the genera according to the Linnaean 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- 
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