the Britijh Fuci, with particular Defcriptions of each Species. 175 



The errors which have attended the inveftigation of this plant, 

 are owing in a great meafure to Linnaeus himfelf, who inadvertently 

 under his ceranoides quoted the figure of Morifon ahove mentioned. 

 The figure altogether militates again ft the defcription which he 

 gives of ceranoides; for he defcribes it as having apices veficulofos t 

 which mammillofus never has : befides, the fpecimen prefer ved in his 

 herbarium has no affinity to it; for that is never found with thofe 

 excrefcences which we mention as the characteriftic of this plant. 



Lin nanus's quoting this figure of Morifon to his ceranoides, led 

 fubfequent authors, who naturally trufted more to fuch an ex- 

 preflive figure than to his verbal defcription, to miftake the plant 

 which he named ceranoides. Thus Gmelin fuppofed crifpus to be 

 ceranoides, and mammillofus, inafmuch as it was fo cited by Linnaeus 

 himfelf, a variety of it. 



Mr. Hudfon obferving the frond to be channelled, referred mam* 

 millofus to canaliculars ; but they differ moll widely, the ends of 

 the branches in one being exceedingly tuberculated, and the other 

 plain. So that we cannot but wonder at fuch a want of accuracy. 



Mr. Lightfoot again carries it back to ceranoides in defiance of the 

 wide difference of the very fructification, of which he feems perfectly 

 aware. He does not feem tohave noticed the frond being channelled. 



When the learned in the fcience fo differ, we mud deprecate all 

 cenfure upon our vanity, if we prefume to hold out a truer invefti- 

 gation. It cannot be ceranoides of Linnasus or canaliculars, for the 

 ends of the branches in both thofe fpecies are full of tubercles— in 

 this, plain. It cannot be crifpus, becaufe the frond is plain and the 

 tubercles are folitary and fixed in the fubftance of the plant ; in 

 this the frond is always channelled, and the fructification is minute 

 tubercles in the mammillofe proceffes (landing out on each fide 

 of the feveral branches. 



It 



