A bunch of botanists, brilliantly attired, turned up at the National Museum of Ireland for the launch of Flora Hibernica. Its authors, Valerie Hall and Jonathan Pilcher, were delighted to head up the party.
The last great book on the wild plants and trees of Ireland was published in 1937 by Robert Lloyd Praeger - before colour photography existed - while the botanist, James Mackay, compiled the very first listing of plants in 1836. The beautiful Hall and Pilcher book, which is filled with pictures, was welcomed by the friends and colleagues of the two Queen's University authors.
They thanked those who had directed them to new and unfamiliar places around the country, such as Dr Siobhβn Geraghty, heritage officer with Tipperary North Riding County Council, who was there with her mother, Peggy Geraghty.
Dr Robin Govier, from Queen's University, was there too, chatting to Dagmar Stengel, a botanist at NUI Galway. Also present was Maura Scannell, former assistant keeper of the National Museum of Ireland and former keeper of the herbarium at the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, where there are 600,000 specimens, she says.
Another botanist, Prof William Watts, came along too to applaud the publication by Collins Press.
╔anna N∅ Lamhna, a Co Louth woman and the botanist who is now a regular contributor on RT╔ radio and television, was there to launch the book.