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Rus in Urhe. By Edward Newman. 



It seems most forcibly impressed on me that I am never more to 

 ramble at leisure among our ferns in their native homes ; and, con- 

 sequently, never to enjoy the opportunity of studying differences 

 where alone they are to be satisfactorily determined. Combined with 

 this feeling is a knowledge of the fact, the irresistible, the manifest 

 fact, that I have left much to be done. In Cystopteris fragilis, a 

 group rather than a species, nothing satisfactory has yet been accom- 

 plished, not one step has been taken in the right direction. It is 

 true, we have five names, and those botanists who delight in multi- 

 plying species, or who estimate the value of their herbarium by the 

 multitude of its names, apply these names according to their pleasure, 

 often making the most ingenious and fanciful combinations : but, 

 with this exception, which may be called playing at Botany, not a 

 single step has been taken towards ascertaining whether we really 

 possess more than one British species of Cystopteris : on the other 

 hand, it may truly be said, we have no reason to give for grouping 

 together so vast an assemblage of heterogeneous forms. In Filix- 

 femina we have advanced a step further ; but still no more than a step : 

 although forty-five years have elapsed since Roth elaborately de- 

 scribed five species of this family, and nearly fifty years since Hoff- 

 mann characterised a similar number ; no British author has ever 

 enquired whether the characters given by these eminent botanists are 

 sufficient or insufficient, or whether we possess in this country one 

 species or five. In the group, called by Hooker Aspidium spinulosum, 

 it has been shown that five most distinct and unvarying species had 

 been " rolled into one " ; and these have at length been extricated with 

 some exactitude under the names of Cystopteris montana, Lastrsea 

 recurva, L. spinosa, L. multiflora, and L. rigida. But is no more to 

 be accomplished ? are we sure that we have no other species equally 

 distinct ? I cannot for a moment doubt that the task is still imper- 

 fectly accomplished. Our knowledge will not remain stationary at this 

 point, now that attention is awakened : the result will be sure to re- 

 ward the diligent enquirer. 



Perhaps there is egotism even in recurring to our errors : I think it 

 is so ; and yet I cannot refrain from reverting to mine, since I fear 

 they tended to repress investigation, and, consequently, to retard elu- 

 cidation. When very young in the study, I drew conclusions from 

 insufficient data, a practice far too common. I found that Smith 

 described a fern under three names, calling the more perfect form, 

 Vol. it. 2 b 



