264 MR MACVICAR on the Germination of the Filices. 



ing which, each saw forms apparently irreconcileable, and by a 

 law of our nature, which requires us to believe the testimony of 

 our own senses in preference to that of another, late observers 

 have been led to attach doubts as to the accuracy of preceding 

 observations, which nothing but a different result, obtained by 

 the same process, could vindicate. 



It has been the fate of LINDSAY, the first observer of im- 

 portance, according to the opinion of late and far more enlight- 

 ened naturalists, to see " several whimsical shapes *," which suc- 

 ceeding observers have not been able to recognise f. His obser- 

 vations were made at Jamaica some time previous to the year 

 1789, and the engravings were executed in England, where he 

 had no opportunity of superintending, so as to correct errors. 

 Notwithstanding, the figures are tolerably accurate, and certain- 

 ly entitle the author to more merit than has of late been awarded 

 to him. They commence with the sporule soon after germination, 

 and he gives several representations of the plantule in successive 

 stages, as seen by a high magnifier. These correspond to the 

 first seven figures in the accompanying drawing ; and, except 

 that he has represented the radicles in all of them as proceeding 

 from the sporule alone, an error, it must be confessed, which of 

 itself shews that he did not understand the peculiarity of the 

 evolution, they are not very unlike what the author has ob- 

 served. He then permits some weeks to pass without observa- 

 tions, until the little plants begin to appear to the eye as small 

 heart-shaped scales. His observations then correspond to the 

 accompanying Figures 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Plate XL; they are 

 represented of the natural size, and are tolerably just. The 



* Sup. to Encyc. Brit. Art. Anat. Veg. 

 + Edin. Encyc. Art. Filices. 

 J Lin. Trans, vol. ii. p. 95. 



