Partly as a result of a series of very successful public lectures on geology by Joseph Beete Jukes (1811–69) and on natural history by Ralph Tate (1840–1901), organised by the Department of Science and Art in Belfast in 1862–3, demand arose for a specialist natural history society. This led to the creation of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club (BNFC) in 1863, a society much more narrowly focused on natural history than its predecessor, the BNHPS. However, both these organisations shared many common members, up to 500, most of whom were of the Protestant middle classes from the ship-owning and linen-manufacturing families of Belfast – a good number of them were women. Further south, in the less industrial parts of the country, the development of societies and clubs was slower: the Natural History Society of Dublin started in 1838 and ended c.1871; the Cuvierian Society of Cork fl. 1845–55; the Dublin Microscopical Club in 1849–1924; the Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club in 1885–present day; the Cork Naturalists’ Field Club 1892–1923, and the Limerick Naturalists’ Field Club 1892–1912.
Eminent Victorian naturalists Samuel Alexander Stewart, Ralph Tate, William Gray and Joseph Wright at a meeting of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club in the early 1860s.
The Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club was founded by Alfred Cort Haddon (1855–1940), who started his scientific career as a marine zoologist engaged in deep water dredging expeditions off the southwest coast in 1885 and 1886. But, on taking up a Fellowship at Cambridge in 1901, it was his interest in anthropology that consumed the remainder of his professional life. Towards the end of his stay in Ireland he published several papers on the cranial measurements of west coast islanders where he was affectionately known as ‘Haddon the head hunter’. In the words of Praeger, ‘after a brief period of decline following a very successful start, the Club settled down, and with some fluctuations has reached a gratifying success’.2 Initially the Club apparently felt no need to establish its own journal as there already existed other publication outlets that could be used. But the Club’s great achievement was the founding, in 1892, of the Irish Naturalist, an independent monthly journal for all aspects of Irish natural history. For 33 years the Irish Naturalist was the main outlet for Irish natural history publications. As rightly pointed out by Patrick and Peter Wyse-Jackson in their review of the journal ‘it is one of the major sources for scientific research today and provides a valuable insight into the countryside, nature, environment and attitudes of the 1890s to 1920s’.93 The last issue was December 1924. Its demise was due mainly to financial mismanagement and other circumstances of the early 1920s, exacerbated by the wider economic and political uncertainties facing the country. Almost immediately after its death another publication, The Irish Naturalists’ Journal, sprung forth from Belfast in September 1925. The new Journal was born, at the insistence of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club, under the aegis of a committee, representing various natural history societies and institutions from both parts of Ireland. Today, after 73 vigorous years, The Irish Naturalists’ Journal is the main organ for Irish naturalists to reveal their discoveries and findings.
Another institution pivotal to the development of Irish natural history was the Dublin Natural History Museum. In 1792 the Royal Dublin Society (founded in 1731 for improving ‘Husbandry, Manufactures and other useful Arts and Sciences’) bought ‘the natural history museum’ of the German Nathaniel Gottfried Lesk (1752–86), known as the Leskean collection, of minerals, shells and insects – at least 2,500 species of the latter. Later, in June 1795, William Higgins was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy and put in charge of the special cabinet, designed to host this collection, placed in a spacious apartment in Hawkins Street and open to students. Thus the Dublin Natural History Museum was born. Now located in its own building in Merrion Street, it attracts over a quarter of million visitors each year. The Museum has one of the world’s finest and fullest collections in the old cabinet style, reminiscent of former times. To enter it is to set foot in another world, so much so that it could be described as ‘the museum of a museum’. Over the years many distinguished Irish naturalists and zoologists have served in the institution, making significant contributions to Irish natural history.
Back in Northern Ireland the BNFC served as a valuable nursery for young naturalists who were given their first organised encounters with nature and had opportunities for brushing their minds against their more learned and experienced elders. Praeger’s father enrolled the young Robert aged 11 as a member. Praeger recounts that he formed many friendships with the older members who ‘one by one crept silently into the grave’. Praeger acquired, along with many others, a knowledge of field-lore – botanical, zoological and geological – which stood him in good stead throughout his life. To Praeger the Field Club was a ‘second university in which I formed friendships which, despite disparity of age, remained warm and intimate’. Some Field Club excursions into the countryside aroused wry comments from locals. On one such occasion Praeger was leader of the group and overheard two locals: ‘Where d’you think they’ve come from?’ asked one. ‘O’ch, they’re from the asylum’, came the answer from the other, and pointing his finger at Praeger ‘That one there is the keeper.’
Natural history in the twentieth century
Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865–1953) was one of the indomitable class of naturalists who were robust in physique and driven by continuous energy. Together with John Templeton and William Thompson, Praeger was probably the most significant naturalist to have come out of the Province of Ulster. Praeger was born near Belfast. His father was from the Hague, Holland, and his mother was Maria, daughter of Robert Patterson F.R.S. (1863–1931), of three generations of Belfast naturalists and from whom Praeger claims to have inherited ‘a taste for natural science’.94 His masterpiece was Irish Topographical Botany, published in 1901 as Volume VII of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.71 A peak in Irish botanical research, it represents five years of intensive field work and the collation of thousands of records arranged systematically with notes on their distribution throughout the 40 botanical divisions of Ireland. The book was effectively the equivalent of 40 ‘county’ floras! Praeger updated it by publishing a series of three special supplements that included new discoveries for the periods 1900–1905, 1906–28 and 1929–34, also in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.95,96,97 A monument of knowledge, Irish Topographical Botany provides a feast of information for the specialist, but it is not a book that accommodates the general reader. Praeger corrected this with A Tourist’s Flora of the West of Ireland (1909)98 covering 11 of the western botanical ‘Divisions’ and later by The Botanist in Ireland (1934)99 which embraced the whole country. The charm of these two popular books rests on Praeger’s succinct and concise style when dealing with the topographical, geological and botanical features of the best-known sites. In his preface to The Botanist in Ireland he writes: ‘All that I have to say at the conclusion of fifty years’ field-work in Ireland, during which I have explored the flora of every country, of every important mountain-range, lake, river and island, is embodied in condensed form in the present work.’ Neither A Tourist’s Flora nor The Botanist in Ireland are obsolete today. They contain fine photographs of the countryside and close-ups by Robert Welch (1859–1936), a Belfast-based professional photographer and a naturalist in his own right.
Although published some 89 years ago, Praeger’s A Tourist’s Flora remains a practicable guide.
Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865–1953), the doyen of Irish botany.
Praeger was extremely prolific, producing a vast body of scientific papers as well as three other books, for educational use, which were illustrated by his sister Rosamond (1867–1954): Open-Air Studies in Botany: Sketches of British Wildflowers in Their Homes (1897), Weeds: Simple Lessons for Children (1913) and Aspects of Plant Life with Special