Mr Mackay's Flora Hibernica. 265 
within fifty miles of it." This is a highly curious fact ; but sup- 
posing the plants to be varieties, it only proves their characters to 
be singularly constant. If it is an ascertained fact that they are 
really varieties, they ought to be acknowledged as such, and a scien- 
tific truth recognized. It is very remarkable that Primula far inosa 
has not been found in Ireland.* 
The second part of the volume is from the pen of Dr Taylor, the 
able coadjutor of Professor Hooker in the well-known Muscologia 
Britannica. The acute observer is manifest in every page, but es- 
pecially in the descriptions of the Hepaiicce, which evidently exhi- 
bit the result of a long series of observations upon the living plants. 
A new genus (Hygrophila} is established to receive the Marchan- 
tia irrigua of Wilson t (in Brit. Fl.) and we have two new species of 
Jungermannia ; one hitherto confounded with /. epiphylla ; the 
other parasitic upon Hypnum loreum, and so minute as to be only 
visible under the microscope. Among the Musci we have a recent 
acquisition (Gynostomum tortile, Schw.) a near species of Glyphomi- 
trion, and a new species of Bridel's genus Zygotrickia. Ireland 
seems to be exceedingly rich in lichens. Besides a host of species 
already known as inhabiting the British islands, Dr Taylor has de- 
scribed forty-three new species belonging to various genera, eleven 
* There is one other point well worthy of attention, and yet but slightly 
noticed in this work, we mean the bog-timber of Ireland, more particularly the 
pine tribe. Mr Mackay appears to have satisfied himself that not more than 
one species of pine is found in the bogs, and that that is identical with the 
Pinus sylvestris, for he says under that head, (p. 259) " this tree appears to 
have been abundant in Ireland, as trunks of very large dimensions are often found 
in the bogs," and expresses no doubt of their identity with the Scotch fir. Any 
person reading this observation would suppose that the point was settled, yet, 
indeed, there still remains great doubts on the subject, for apparently at least 
two different kinds of deal exist in the bogs. One has a stem spirally twisted 
in a very marked manner, is very inflammable, gives out a fine perfume when 
burned, and is used in the place of candles and torches by the peasantry in 
many parts of the island. One of them also, we believe the latter, has the root 
far larger in proportion to the timber, than it is found to be in the Scotch fir. 
It is more than a speculative point to determine the species, for since a fir once 
grew to a very large size in the wetter of the Irish bogs, it might do so again 
could we succeed in obtaining the same species of tree ; and there is no way to 
come to the desired information, excepting by a careful and microscopical exami- 
nation of the structure of every kind of bog-timber. 
f Ord. HEPATIC^. Genus HYGROPHILA. Male receptacle pedunculated, hir- 
sute, with short scattered hairs. Female receptacle pedunculated, hirsute, with 
short scattered hairs. Calyx none. Loculi univalved, carnose, opening at the 
top with a vertical short fissure. (Frond without pores.) 
