190 DUBLIN IT ATUBAL HJ9T0EY SOCIETY. 



convinced that the reduction of species is a move in the right direction, 

 and tliat we shall become used to it, and shall like it in time. As lobsters 

 get used to being boiled, so species-makers will get used to being roasted. 

 That Beutham has done good service in his Handbook in abolishing Rubi, 

 Salices, and Hicracia, will, I think, be generally allowed, though the 

 originators of the repudiated names may feel aggrieved ; and if he have 

 occasionally over-strained his point, I can forgive him, in gratitude for 

 the good service he has done. But I have the more confidence in his 

 judgment, and the greater respect for his authority, because I know 

 him to be not merely a fair and truthful man, but a man of enlarged lo- 

 gical mind, of cautious discretion, and of acute observing powers, and 

 who has had ample experience of plants both in the open field as well as 

 in the closet. 



I have stiU a few words to say in apology for my having brought 

 Ceratopteris and Parkeria on the stage, as Mr. Andrews had considered 

 my observations to have ''no bearing on the point in discussion." To 

 my mind they have a very definite bearing on an argument brought for- 

 ward in Mr. Andrews's first paper. In that paper, when speaking of 

 the specific distinctions between the Hymenophyllums, Mr. Andrews 

 stated that the character on which he particularly relied was that taken 

 from the involucre ; and I understood him to maintain that in ferns ge- 

 nerally, however variable the fronds might be, yet that characters de- 

 rived from the fructification were subject to no variation, and were, 

 therefore, certain characters. The inference he drew from this was, 

 that as the Hymenophyllums differed by such a character, therefore 

 they were distinct species — the point for which he was arguing. As I 

 understood him to assert the absolute invariability of the fructification 

 in ferns, I brought forward the case of Parkeria and Ceratopteris to show 

 that instances of variability of a grave character do exist in the fructifi- 

 cation of ferns. I stated that in Ceratopteris the elastic ring of the cap- 

 sule varied considerably in size and development, and was sometimes 

 quite obsolete ; and I maintained that this character was one of graver 

 moment than valuations in the marginal serratures of an involucre. 



When combating the inference I wished to draw from my state- 

 ment. Dr. Kinahan, at the second meeting, when I was not present, is 

 reported to have expressed hin^self thus : — " Every one who has studied 

 the ferns living (for the mere closet study of dried specimens' is but of 

 compai'atively little value) must know that, of all the characters selected 

 as specific or genuine, the least valuable and most uncertain are those 

 derived from the form, presence, and position of the tranverse ring ; 

 indeed, I almost question the utility of these characters at all." This 

 statement, I own, completely takes me by surprise. It is information 

 as new to me as, I am convinced, it will be to most pteridologists. As 

 far as I know, the facts I stated of Ceratopteris are quite exceptional ; 

 such variations of the ring are verj^ unusual ; and I still think the cha- 

 racter of annulus entitled to be regarded, as it has been by Brown, 

 Hooker, and all modern systematic writers, as a primaiy character, dis- 

 tinguishing not merely genera and species, but sub- orders among the 



