284- NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



It is far however from our intention or wish, on the present occa- 

 sion, to criticize the views of the several works now under considera- 

 tion, even had we greater confidence than we have in the soundness or 

 stability of our own views, which are certainly at variance with the 

 present passion for making new genera. We shall rather undertake 

 the more grateful task of saying a few words in favour of much that is 

 ^ood in them. 



As the most important of the works that stand at the head of this 

 notice, we must assuredly rank those of M. Fee, the most learned Pte- 

 ridologist of the present day or of any former time. Considering the 

 amount of his genera, 181 in Folypodiacece alone, and the necessity for 

 a multiplicity of divisions and subdivisions, his arrangement is good, 

 well considered as to natural affinity, and his definitions are clear and 

 intelligible. Every part of the plant is taken into account in the for- 

 mation of genera ; and, as may be expected, great stress laid upon the 

 importance of venation as a distinguishing feature in their characters. 

 The plates are numerous, often beautiful, and, in general, extremely 

 accurate. Examples of nearly the whole of the genera adopted by ■ 

 him are figured, accompanied by ample analyses. These, no less than 

 his figures of species in his Monographs of Acrostichacea, Vittariea, 

 Pleurogrammea, and Antrophyece, together with his ' Iconographie 

 des Espeees nouvelles,' are of the greatest value to the student of 

 Ferns, and teach him more than all the most laboured descriptions can 

 do. M. Fee has reason to be proud of the services he has rendered to 

 Pteridology, and his works will never cease to be referred to for the 

 multitude of accurate figures of the plates, and the new views and 

 ideas elicited in the descriptive portion. 



Mr. J. Smith, the author of the Articles III. and IV., has been long 

 known in the botanical world for the very extensive collection of Ferns 

 he has brought together in the Royal Gardens of Kew, chiefly imported 

 through his influence, and successfully cultivated by his unwearied care ; 

 and no less known for the great extent of his own private Herbarium 

 of Ferns, both of which collections he has studied with great persever- 

 ance. The valuable results have been on various occasions laid before 

 the world, especially in the tract on « The Arrangement and Definition 

 of the Genera of Ferns/' published in our Journal of Botany for June 

 and July, 1841. Almost at the same time with Presl, and without 

 any knowledge of what the other was engaged upon, these two writers 



