REVIEWS. 115 



works on the subject have lately made their appearance, yet we think this 

 one entitled to become the text-book with botanists, and a fit com- 

 panion for the other works on British Natural History, as one of a series 

 of which it is published. In all but name this work is a Monograph ; and 

 though future investigators may, and, doubtless, will discover some new 

 things, yet, up to the present moment, all that can be said in elucidation 

 of these objects is said; and patient research into works of other ages, has 

 opened to us all that our ancestors — those fathers of Natural History — 

 thought and wrote upon them. The labour and research exhibited in these 

 pages in distinguishing species deserves our warmest praise, which, we are 

 sure, will not be denied by any Pteridologist, who knows the perplexity 

 caused by the various abnormal forms in ferns, and by the number of 

 varieties falsely elevated to the rank of species. In the year 1690, the 

 the author of the " Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation," 

 published his " Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum," a work 

 characterized by one of our most competent judges, Sir J. E. Smith, as one 

 of the most perfect, systematical, and practical floras of any country. This 

 synopsis contained forty-eight species of ferns, or less by two than the 

 number recorded in the work before us, as being strictly British ; of this 

 number twelve are omitted as being varieties. The next addition will be 

 found in the English Flora, by Sir J. E. Smith, who adds nine, of which 

 six are rejected in the present work — four, Aspidium spinulosum, A. 

 dumetorum, A. irriguum, and Cystopteris dentata, as having no claim 

 whatever to be mentioned even as varieties ; two, Cystopteris regia and 

 Asplenium fontanum, as having been only found on stone walls; two 

 additions are given by Sir W. Hooker, in his British Flora, Aspidium 

 (Lophodium) rigidum, and Hymenophyllum Wilsonii (unilaterale), which 

 are retained under new titles ; and, at sundry times, and in various edi- 

 tions of his British Ferns, Mr. Newman has added nine species — thus making 

 the number of species of ferns found in Britain to be fifty. 



These fifty are arranged by Mr. Newman into three grades — first, those 

 concerning whose identity there can be no doubt ; secondly, the following 

 four — Woodsia alpina, Cystopteris Dickieana, Ophioglossum lusitanicum, 

 and Hymenophyllum unilaterale, which, though inserted in his pages as 

 established species, still we find botanists, of acknowledged ability, doubtful 

 as to whether they may not be varieties of kindred species; and, 

 thirdly, Asplenium acutum, Polystichum angulare, Lophodium collinum, 

 Amesium germanicum, Lophodium glandulosum, Lophodium uliginosum, 

 Botrychium rutaceum. The claims of these latter to be species the reader 

 will find fully entertained in these pages, under their respective titles. 



