286 NOTICES OP BOOKS. 



(XXXVIII.), well stored with eight figures^ representing so many va- 

 riations in form (of greater or less degree) of Asplenium mayinuni; and 

 nine varieties are recorded. Plate XXXIX. exhibits the well-known 

 Asplenium Trlchomanes^ and certain forms, of which latter nine are 

 here (as in the preceding species) enumerated, accompanied by the re- 

 mark, "until lately very little variation had been observed in this spe- 

 cies ; now however several marked varieties are known, and they, for 

 the most part, seem to have the quality of constancy 5" — we hope our 

 author does not mean to that degree as to merit being considered dis- 

 tinct species. We have been lately favoured with some specimens of 

 the seventh so-called variety, " from the banks of the Wye, near Mon- 

 mouth, by Mr. J. D. Enys," irK^quale: but we must honestly confess 

 we should reckon such to be almost the normal form of the species; 

 so different are the opinions of botanists on Terns, which every one has 

 the opportunity of studying on our walls and rocks. Plate XL. Asple- 

 nium viride. 



Part XIV. The first Plate here, VII.*, represents the Polypodium 

 alpedre^ as yet, in Britain, found only on certain highland mountains 

 in Porfar, Aberdeen, and Perthshire. We are glad Mr. Moore abandons 

 his former views of considering P.Jlexile a distinct species, and that he 

 unites it with F, alpedre, Plate XLI. includes three somewhat allied 

 species : — viz. 1, our Wall Eue, the well-known Asplenium Ruta-mura- 

 via ; 2, Asplenium Gei^manicuMy a very rare inhabitant of the North of 

 England and of Scotland ; and 3, Asplenium seplentrionale^ also a rare 

 British plant. Plate XLII. represents Seolopendrium vulgare, and its 

 varieties, or rather deformities, to the illustration of which ten folio 

 pages are devoted^ and sixty-six varieties are discriminated. 



Part XV. Plate XLIII. A, exhibits the CeteracJi officinarmn, or 

 " Scale-Fern ;" but the figure would hardly justify this latter name : 

 this process of Nature-printing quite failing in representing the hairs 

 and scales of plants. The thick, woody, and knotted rhizome of this 

 and other Perns is equally unsuited to this art. At letter B of the 

 same plate, the rare Gymnogramma leptojpliylla ^ being a thin, delicate 

 plant, is most faithfully figured, as is Blechnum Spicant (letter C), with 

 the exception of the root. Although only the usual form is given, 

 thirteen varieties are described. Plate XLIV. Pteris aquilina, Plate 

 XLV. Adiantum Capillus- Veneris. 



Part XVI. Plate XLVI. represents very good figures of Oysfopteris 



