72 



BRITISH FERNS. 



if a botanist were to commence with the seedling form at the top 

 of the cut, and go regularly downwards, he would find it difficult 

 to divide the plants represented into two distinct species. Still, 

 as botanists of eminence have considered this plant as specifically 

 distinct, I have much pleasure in being able to quote the 

 opinion of Linneus as corroborative of my own. The passage 

 I quote is from the pen of M. Jacquin, and stands in his " Mis- 

 cellanea Austriaca," appended as a note to a paper by Wulfen, 

 entitled, " Plantse rariores Carinthiacae." Jacquin, in alluding to 

 A. alternifolium, there described by Wulfen, writes thus : — 

 " Plantulam banc jam olim crescentem in Austria, circa Glock- 

 nitz in rupibus calcareis etiam mixtim cum Acrosticho septentrio- 

 nali. Cum beatus Linneus quocum communicaverim, mordicus 

 sustineret mecum esse Rvice murarice xarietatem, non ausus fui pro 

 nova specie proponere et omiseram in stirpium agri Viennensis 

 enumeratione." — Jacquin Mis. Aus. Vol. ii. p. 52, anno 1781. 



Sir J. E. Smith remarks, that this plant is " an intermediate 

 species between septentrionale and ruta-muraria, though per- 

 fectly distinct from both." 



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