Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/238

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BROWNE. 227 considerable preparations by many additional plants, and several corrections in bis different voyages to these islands for altogether he visited the West Indies at six differen periods, and resided upwards of a twelve-month at Anti gua, Prior to his decease, he forwarded to Sir Joseph Banks, P. R. S. " A Catalogue of the Plants growing in the Sugar Islands, &e. classed and described according to the Linnæan system," in 4to. containing about eighty pages. In Exshaw's Gentleman's and London Magazine, for June 1774, he published " A Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland," and in Exshaw's Magazine of August follow- ing, "A Catalogue of the Fish of Ireland. Dr. Browne long and regularly kept up a correspon- dence with the celebrated Linnaeus, which continued to his death, a correspondence which, for the sake of science it would have been praiseworthy to bave published, but un fortunately, though the Doctor was possessed of the epistles of Linngeus, by some pnaccountable neglect he retained no copies of his own. In 1788 he prepared for the press a very curious and usefál Catalogue of the Plants of the North-West Counties of Ireland, classed with great care and accuracy, according to the Linnaean system, and containing above seven bun dred plants, mostly observed by himself, having trusted very few to the descriptions of others. This small trac written in Latin, but containing both the English and Irish names and descriptions, might be of considerable use in assisting to compile a "Flora Hibernia," a work every botanist will allow to be much wanting The Doctor was a tall, comely man, of good address, and gentle and unassuming manners, naturally cheerful, very temperate, and in general healthy; but in his latter years had violent periodical fits of the gout, by which he suffered greatly. In the intervals of these unwelcome visits he formed the Catalogue of Plants, and was always (when in health) employed in the study of natural bistory, or imathematics. He married at a very early period, in