100 HKVIKWS. 



the single frond of one of the seedlings, and pinning it to a cork previously 

 covered with wet wash-leather, I fixed the cork firmly in the phial, and left 

 the fern hanging at the head of the pin with its roots downwards. Some 

 hours afterwards I looked at my little fern, and found it exhibited no symp- 

 toms of withering; whereas the other seedlings, left carelessly on the ground 

 beside the phial, were completely dead, and crumbled to powder between 

 the finger and thumb. I hung up the phial by a string to a nail in the 

 garden wall, and here it was hanging twelve months afterwards. The 

 cork was fastened exactly as I left it, but the phial was filled with some- 

 thing green, which, on taking it out, proved to be a plant of the common 

 chickweed, but to my great joy the little fern still hung from the pin ; its 

 roots were longer, it had made two fronds, and the original frond had wi- 

 thered, but was still strong enough to support the fern." 



The value of characters drawn from the venation of ferns is 

 very properly alluded to as affording a means of distinguish- 

 ing closely-allied genera : an observation moreover deserving 

 consideration, from its being generally very distinct in the 

 fossil species of this tribe, where the fructification ceases to 

 afford a sufficient or tangible guide. 



" Most authors have admitted the importance, for purposes of nomencla- 

 ture, of those characters which are spoken of by Smith as derived from the 

 fructification ; but, until lately, other characters of equal value, drawn 

 from the situation of the veins, have been entirely neglected ; this is now 

 no longer the case, and I am inclined to believe, that henceforward, in the 

 veins of a new fem will be sought the characters which shall decide its 

 genus." 



The illustrations display considerable taste, and what is of 

 far greater moment, correctness. The descriptive part of the 

 volume is accurately and clearly wTitten, and the list of ha- 

 bitats is tolerably copious. The reader will at first be sur- 

 prised by the appearance of several old friends under new 

 faces, ii-om some alterations of nomenclature introduced by 

 Mr. Newman, none of which, how^ever, appear to have been 

 made hastily or unnecessarily ; and in no instance has the 

 author coined a new name. 



Under Lastrcea dilatata (Nephrodium dilatatum) mention 

 is made of the two remarkable varieties of this fine fem, cha- 

 racterised by the nearly flat, and the convex recurved fronds. 

 There is one curious variety not, however, referred to, which 

 grows under some hedges skirting Hampstead Heath, in w^hich 

 the frond is often three feet high, and the spores are of a bril- 

 liant jet black, the indusia being white : the whole plant, 

 whilst drying, evolving an aromatic odour like woodroffe {As- 

 perula odor at a). 



The closely-allied species of Aspidinm, viz., lohatum, an- 

 gulare, and aculeatum^ are very correctly treated of as varie- 

 eties of one and the same plant, arising from accidental 



