SCULLY, Reginald W. Flora of County Kerry. Including the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Characeae, &c. With six plates and a coloured folding map

SCULLY, Reginald W. Flora of County Kerry. Including the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Characeae, &c. With six plates and a coloured folding map. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1916. pp. lxxxi, 406. Original green blind-stamped cloth, title in gilt on spine. Ex libris National Library of Scotland with stamp on half title. New endpapers. Top edge gilt. A near fine copy.

Dr. Reginald W. Scully (1858-1935) took the medical course at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, but did not practise. His interest in botany was stimulated by A. G. More. He was a man of retiring disposition, and acquired his knowledge of Irish flowering plants more by study and field-work than by participation in the scientific life of Dublin, where he resided for most of his life, making long summer sojourns especially in Kerry. He was co-editor with Colgan of the second edition of ‘Cybele Hibernica’, but on the latter fell the brunt of that laborious undertaking. His ‘Flora of Kerry’ is, for fullness and critical accuracy, one of the best books on Irish botany that has appeared. In later years he went to live at Rushbrooke near Cork, and, though retaining to the last a keen interest in the flora of Ireland and especially of Kerry.

The ‘Flora of County Kerry’ was the first botanical survey of the county, compiled over a period of 25 years. In the research and field work Scully was assisted by Maude Delap. Contents: History of the Flora; Physical Features, Geological Sketch; Climate; Characteristics of the Flora; Influence of Soils on Plants; Vertical Range of the Species; Division of County for Botanical Purposes - District I. Glanarought, 2. Dunkerron South, 3. Iveragh, 4. Dunkerron North, 5. Corkaguiny, 6. Magunihy, 7. Trughanacmy, 8. Clanmaurice, 9. Iraghticonnor; Plan of Flora and General Explanations.