of a minute epiphyllous Lycoperdon. 309 
plant in the latter ftate, fince his detection of the error (if it was his 
own) was but partial; he having, after all, confidered the punéa as 
being effected by infeéts. He actually fays, that * a fmall winged 
* infect is apt to depofit its eggs on the under part of the leaves 
“ of this fpecies," (fpeaking of the Anemone nemorofa) * and they 
“ fomewhat refemble the round dots in which the feeds of fern 
* are lodged." What degree of credit is due to this account, 
will be manifeft from the fubfequent hiftory of the plant. | 
Although after this time neither Hupson, LicuTroor, Martyn, 
Lyons, RELHAN*, nor any other author takes notice of this Filix 
lobata, yet fome foreign writers of the moft refpectable note conti- 
nued to advance the old opinion relating to thefe appearances on the 
. leaves of the Anemone. “ Foliis ftigmatibus ex infeétorum ictu no- 
tatis," are the words of Harren, H;ff. Plant. Helv. tom. i. p. 64; and 
the accurate. PorLica in his H; Lior ia Plantarum P alatinatás electoralis, 
adds, when fpeaking of this plant ‘ariat quoque ubi folia mi- 
** nora ac latiora erant, lobata, fubtus punctis nigris con{perfa, quz 
“ ab infectorum iétu nafcuntur.” 
After having thus traced the hiftory of this production down to 
the prefent time, I muft obferve, that, although it would be un- 
warrantable in me to affert that no infect ever depofits its eggs 
on the under fide of the leaves of the Anemone nemorofa, yet I fuf- 
pe& that the want of a precife examination of thefe juna -has 
been the fole reafon of perpetuating an error, and that thefe punéta, 
whenever found, have been in reality, not of animal, but of ve- 
getable origin: and I cannot help prefuming that the defcription 
I fhall give, and the reafons hereafter alleged, but above all a 
view of the plant itfelf, which I herewith fubmit to the infpection 
of the Gentlemen of the Society, will fufficiently eftablith this 
opinion, 
* Aecidium fufeum. Relh. Cant. Suppl. iii. 36. 
Before 
Li 
