233 



Ergo, the name of recurva as applied to the Lastra^a in question is 

 in every way isolated and exceptional. 



The^V*^ of these positions we hold to be totally unsupported by 

 evidence ; hence the second becomes scarcely more than a matter of 

 opinion, and the conclusion, if based upon false premises, falls to the 

 ground. Let us examine the first position : — 



Dr. Bell Salter asserts that " common acceptation has universally ap- 

 plied the term dorsum or back to that surface of any part which is si- 

 tuated outwardly before its having expanded, and in accordance with 

 this we have in applied to every curvature, which, supposing the part 

 in question to be unexpanded, would be towards the axis of the plant, 

 as iwvolutus ; and re, with the solitary exception of the controverted 

 Lastraea, to a curvature, which, on a similar supposition, would be in 

 the opposite direction, as reflexus," ( Phytol. ii. 200). Now it ap- 

 pears to us, that our correspondent assumes this position without tak- 

 ing the trouble to examine a single page of his Smith, his Hooker or 

 his Babington to see how far his statement is in accordance with their 

 usage. Let him turn to the genus Pteris as characterised by either of 

 these authors. Smith says " Cover from the iwflexed margin of the 

 frond." Hooker says " Involucres formed of the «??flexed margin of 

 the frond." Babington says " Covered by a continuous indusium 

 formed of the mflexed margin." Now every botanist knows the direc- 

 tion in which the margin of Pteris is curved, and every botariist will 

 at once see that it is precisely the curvature which Dr. Salter asserts is 

 described by re, for he goes on to inform our readers that " according 

 to the universal application of the particles in and re, a fern would be 

 mcurvedor2/?flected, which is concave on the polished or smooth sur- 

 face, and recurved or reflexed if concave towards that which bears the 

 sori, and that alike whether the bending happen to be upwards or 

 downwards," ( Id. 201 ). In the familiar instance of Pteris, the 

 usage of Smith and Babington is diametrically at variance with this 

 passage, and supposing Smith accidentally in error, supposing Hooker 

 accidentally adopting Smith's phraseology, still Babington's is a new, 

 we might say, an original description, and the word zwflexed is used, 

 not because Smith used it or because Hooker used it, but because the 

 author thought it the right word. Whether in strict justice we may 

 or may not suppose that all these authors use the in advisedly, in 

 courtesy we are surely bound to believe that they duly investigated 

 the curvature in the pinnules of Pteris, and considered that such a 

 curvature was properly described by the prefix in question. 



Our next aim would have been to show that the prefixes in and re 

 Vol. II. 2 g 



