Genus Mackaya

For James Townsend Mackay (1775–1862), Scottish horticulturalist and curator of the Durban University’s botanical gardens from 1804 until his death. He came to Trinity College, Dublin, as assistant to Dr Robert Scott, then professor of botany. He was a keen field botanist and author of A Systematic Catalogue of the Rare Plants Found in Ireland (1806–1807), in which he noted that up to this time botanists only recorded plants considered to be rare or of medicinal value, a practice that probably resulted in the loss of many records and locations of then common plants. He also authored Catalogue of the Indigenous Plants of Ireland (1825) and was the principal author of Flora Hibernica (Flora of Ireland) (1836), which included all wild species known in the area at the time. Dublin University honoured him with an LLD and PhD in 1850 for his service to botany.