Bibliographical Notices, IM) 



h«s issued an edition with uncoloured plates at a very cheap rate, 

 had it not come to our knowledge that this determination was caused 

 by the publication by the * Society for Promoting Christian Know- 

 ledge ' of the book that stands second on the above hst. It really 

 does seem to us that a ' religious ' Society goes much out of its way 

 when it employs the funds of its subscribers in the issue of books of 

 a secular character, and thus becomes a * publishing house,' in com- 

 petition with men who have to gain their bread by their business. 

 But the matter becomes far worse when the book published is such 

 as that before us. Here we have a work illustrated by numerous 

 plates, nearly all the magnified portions of which, with the entire 

 figures of some of the plants, are badly, but certainly copied from 

 the plates contained in Sowerby's work. We have taken some 

 trouble in the examination of this piratical act, and find that of those 

 figures which Sowerby cannot claim, a considerable number are 

 derived from Newman's 'Ferns.' There is not the slightest ac- 

 knowledgement on the part of the Society, nor of the artist, that such 

 is the origin of these plates ; and we are informed that it was only 

 after legal proceedings had been threatened that the Society, with 

 some difficulty, consented to insert the following notice in future 

 copies of their book, and Sowerby obtained payment for the use of 

 his plates : — 



'^ "Copy or Notice. — The artist also wishes it to be understood, 

 that he has purchased permission of Mr. J. E. Sowerby, to copy from 

 the work lately published by him, entitled * The Ferns of Great 

 Britain, Illustrated,' certain details of the plates, including the figure 

 flf the rare plant Gymnogramma leptophyllay 

 : This notice gives a very faint idea of the extent to which he is 

 indebted to Sowerby, and takes no notice of his appropriations from 

 Newman. We have entered rather fully into this matter, because 

 we believe that neither the authoress nor the leading members of the 

 Society have any idea of the mode in which their " Committee of 

 General Literature " is acting towards authors and publishers. That 

 they should require the threat of legal proceedings to perform an act 

 of common honesty, is more than we can easily believe. 



But enough of this. The public benefit by the issue of the cheap 

 edition of Sowerby's 'Ferns.' 



The Society's book makes no pretensions to a scientific character, 

 and will probably fulfil the objects of its writer ; but it is certainly 

 not a work that we can recommend to persons desiring to acquire 

 any except the most superficial knowledge of the plants. 



Messrs. Sowerby and Johnson's 'Fern-Allies' contains 31 plates, 

 and is intended to be a companion to their ' Ferns.' It treats of the 

 EquisetacecB, Lycopodiacecc, Marsileacece and CharacecB. The plates 

 are mostly good ; but exception must be made of several of those 

 representing the CharacecB, and a few others. That of Equisetum 

 limosum is not like either of the forms, or, as Fries thinks them, 

 species, included under that name ; it appears to be a combination 

 of the two, such as we have never seen in nature. No figure is 

 given of the typical form of E. variegatrim. There is a good plate 

 of E. Moorei, a plant of which the specific distinctness is doubtful. 



