234 



should, in order to give them an intelligible meaning, be opposed to 

 each other, that they should express curvatures in opposite directions; 

 but Dr. Salter admits this, and therefore there is no necessity for our 

 urging it on his attention. Well then. Smith, Hooker and Babington 

 having carefully and advisedly declared a pinnule //iflexed which is 

 convex on the polished or smooth suface, these authors, supposing 

 they assigned the opposite prefix re to the opposite curvature, would 

 describe as reflexed or recurved the pinnules of Lastraea recurva, 

 which are cor\cnve on the polished or smooth surface. 



But here we must pause, for we are scarcely inclined to allow our 

 great authorities the benefit of the implied compliment that they use 

 these prefixes in accordance with any plan : were we to do this, we 

 should convey a very erroneous idea to our readers. Those in ad- 

 vance of ourselves would exclaim "Does the 'Phytologist' imagine these 

 authors adopt any uniform plan in their orismology ?" Those who 

 have not studied the English Flora, the British Flora and the Manual 

 as we have done, may exclaim, " The point must be settled now that 

 the 'Phytologist' adduces such united and overwhelming evidence !" 

 The first conclusion, dear readers ! would be unjust to us, the second 

 unjust to yourselves. These great authors follow no uniform plan of 

 orismology. A facetious writer, judging from the strangeness of cer- 

 tain Old-Bailey verdicts given after dinner,has suggested that the juries, 

 in order to save themselves the labour of thinking, pronounced the 

 prisoners alternately guilty or not guilty. Our botanists have done 

 much the same. It is well known that the fertile pinnules of Thelypteris, 

 aquilina and crispus possess a curvature in the same direction. Smith 

 describes them as revolute in Thelypteris, mflexed in the genus Pteris, 

 revolute in the species aquilina, and reflexed in the species crispus ; 

 Hooker omits this important character in Thelypteris, calls it «wflexed 

 in aquilina, and revolute in crispus ; and Babington calls it revolute 

 in Thelypteris, 2wflexed in aquilina, reflexed in crispus. So much 

 for uniformity of practice in attaching the prefixes : we are really as- 

 tonished that any botanist should allude to "universal" practice in 

 this respect : we fancy our correspondent must have written the pas- 

 sage ironically. Be that as it may. Dr. Bell Salter will see that he 

 has provoked this analysis : he has brought to light this discrepancy 

 in practice, this unutterable confusion in terms, by not confining the 

 question within its proper limits, by allowing himself to lose sight of 

 the word recurvus and limiting his attention almost exclusively to 

 terms which formed no part of the original inquiry. We therefore are 

 compelled to fallback on the views of Mr. Watson ( Phytol. ii. 170), 



