1S4 THE FLORIST. 



my opinion, maj' with equal propriety be applied to it, and in both 

 the pinnules are more or less lobed ; only that I consider it of the 

 very highest importance that man and man should understand each 

 other on all subjects connected with science. But there now ap- 

 pears to be room left open between the present plant and A. lobatum 

 for a third or intermediate species, namely, A. angulare, which is 

 yet, I fear, involved in a considerable degree of uncertainty, if not 

 altogether questionable. At least, the plants forwarded to me for 

 A. angulare proved to be truly identical with my A. lobatum ; for I 

 could perceive nothing on which to fix a specific distinction. It is 

 true, they were noble specimens, five to six feet high in the frond, 

 and doubtless had been growing under very favourable circum- 

 stances ; still the true character of A. lobatum was not in anyway 

 shaken : the same plant growing under cover of a thick hedge-row 

 W'ill appear far less dilated in its fronds than when in exposed situ- 

 ations, where it is usually not so tall, but more spreading. 



Mv correspondent's A. angulare, therefore, offers no real spe- 

 cific difference between it and my A. lobatum, as the pinnules in 

 both are conspicuously petioled and of the same shape ; but in my 

 A. aculeatum the pinnules are really decurrent, even down to the 

 general rachis, and very different in shape. Besides, A. aculeatum 

 is altogether a m<3re rigid plant, more shining and narrower in the 

 frond than A. lobatum ; consequently I should say, unite A. lobatum 

 and A. angulare : but if we do the same thing with A. lobatum and 

 A. aculeatum, we must serve many, very many indeed, of other 

 species the same way, which are not, in my opinion, quite so distinct 

 as they appear to be. 



By the above it will clearly appear that I am not yet prepared 

 conscientiously to subscribe to a third or intermediate species, 

 notwithstanding that I may be opposing my opinion to that of 

 higher authorities. At a time when British Ferns are becoming 

 necessary appendages to almost every well-regulated plant-depart- 

 ment in this country, it is incumbent on those who may profes- 

 sionally be called upon, and consequently under the necessity of 

 naming them, to be particular in respect to both generic and specific 

 characters ; as I know well, from long experience, that nothing can 

 possibly more dishearten their admirers than a perplexing and con- 

 founding arrangement of characters ; and more especially when some 

 of them have no real, or, to say the least, a doubtful foundation. I 

 perceive by my son's notes that my A. lobatum is extremely plen- 

 tiful in those parts of Sussex which he recently happened to visit ; 

 but he did not see a plant of A. aculeatum. Now, if they were dif- 

 ferent forms of the same plant, as some suppose them to be, he must 

 have observed something of the transition from the one state to the 

 other. We have in A. dilatatum several apparently different forms 

 from the original, which in some degree warrant a separation ; but 

 so far as A. lobatum is concerned, I doubt it much. 



Foot's Cray. R. Sim. 



