Flora Hibernica

Hailed “with pleasure” by the Dublin journal of medical science as a work in which “a vast quantity of minute observation and discovery is revealed”, Flora Hibernica (Dublin : W. Curry Jun. and company, 1836) is acknowledged as the first comprehensive Irish flora. Its author James Townsend Mackay was director of the College Botanic Gardens in Dublin, having moved to Ireland from his native Scotland at an early age.

Mackay's heath (Erica mackaiana)

The work contains several contributions by the never published Cork botanist Ellen Hutchins, and includes an entry for Conferva hutchinsiae, now known as Cladophora hutchinsiae, a marine algae named in her honour.
If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie.
A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Foyer during the month of May.