119 



Xotice of- Species Filicum ; being Descriptions of all Known Fer?ts. 

 Illustrated with Plates. By Sir William Jackson Hooker, 

 K.H., LL.D., F.R.A. & L.S., &c. &c. &c., Vice-president of the 

 Linnean Society of London, and Director of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden of Kew.' Parts I. II. and III. London : Pamplin, 45, 

 Frith Street, Soho. 



It has long been our intention to enter on«, minute and careful 

 analysis of this important work ; but we have been deterred by seve- 

 ral causes. In the Jirst place, such an analysis is an undertaking of 

 no ordinary labour : secondly, we think it unfair to judge of a great 

 work by a portion in which the author does not seem at home, and 

 which has subjected him to such cutting criticisms from our German 

 contemporaries ; and thirdly, we feel that the work was much want- 

 ed, and that, if completed, it will supply a desideratum that has long 

 been experienced in botanical literature. Still, though we lay aside 

 the critic's pen, we would, in all good will, recommend the author to 

 pay a little more respect to what has been done in this country and 

 elsewhere, on the subject on which he is writing: he should just skim 

 the contents of other works, and show us that he is at least aware of 

 their existence. Yeai's have elapsed since the writer of this notice 

 attempted to prove that the Trichomanes brevisetum of Brown was 

 identical with the Trichomanes speciosum of TenerifFe and Madeira : 

 he went thoroughly into the question with his lamented friend, David 

 Don, who agreed in the conclusions drawn : the same view was enter- 

 tained even by the great botanist who gave to this plant the name of 

 hrevisetum : the prior name of speciosum was therefore restored to 

 the species, and has been subsequently adopted in the publications 

 of Balfour, Ward, Babington and Watson : and yet, Sir William 

 Hooker, at the present day, writes thus : — " Yet even Sir Jas. Smith 

 did not suspect that it was a plant already, though imperfectly, de- 

 scribed, of South America, and even of TenerifFe and Madeira ; nor 

 has any one ventured to publish it as the same to the present day." — 

 p. 126. We think Sir W. Hooker ought to have known that all Bri- 

 tish botanists are perfectly aware of the identity of the Irish and Ma- 

 deira plants ; for had he examined any herbarium but his own, he 

 would have found the name of speciosum restored, and thus he would 

 have saved himself from very grave charges which are now made 

 against him for want of candour, in instances which in charity we re- 

 fer to a want of care. 



Again, in describing the species of Trichomanes and Hymenophyl- 



