344 • OKTHOTRICIIA FOUND IN AYRSHIRE, 
tend, its true affinity is with Aspldium^ — a view to some extent coun- 
tenanced by the occuiTence of a conspicuously indusiated form of P. 
UTophylhm (for a well-developed example of which I am indebted to 
the Rev. C. Parish), — it A\all be seen that Asj)idie(je are no more clearly 
distingnishable from JcrosticJiea than the other tribes mentioned 
above. 
The foregoing remarks will show any one who is not conversant with 
fern -literature, or has only examined the few forms at the disposal of 
an ordinary student of the European flora, with what difficulties the 
classification of the whole number of known species is surrounded. 
Amongst the numerous authors who of late years have devoted their 
attention to Ferns, there have existed the most irreconcilable differences 
of opinion as to the numher^ characters, and limits of the genera to be 
admitted, and even as to the great divisions in which genera are to be 
grouped. In the writer's opinion, those who have attempted to attain 
greater precision by the excessiv^e multiplication of genera have failed in 
their avowed object ; while they have, assuredly, most frequently formed 
quite unnatural and arbitrary combinations. Nor, does he think, not- 
withstanding the great advance made in our knowledge of the deve- 
lopment of these plants within the last twenty years, and the many 
beautiful works devoted to their illustration, that it can be fairly said 
we have yet mastered even the principles upon which a sound and 
natural classification must be based. Pteridology, at the present day, 
however humiliating the confession, must be admitted to be in about 
the same condition as the vegetable kingdom in general, when Linnaeus 
applied himself to the task of reducing it to order. ■ 
Whampoay S. China^ August 19^Aj 1865, 
ON THE ORTHOTRICHA AND THE RARER AND MORE 
INTERESTING SPECIES OF MOSSES FOUND NEAR 
DAILLY, IN AYRSHIRE. 
By John Shaw, Esq., Free Chukch Training College, 
Glasgow, 
The parish of Dailly, in Ayrshire, is mainly included in the valley 
of the Girvan, where it deepens and widens into the sea. This valley 
