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teresting a species, might yet be a little out of conceit with his own 

 well-known botanical sharpsightedness for having, as he supposes, 

 overlooked for ten years a plant which all the time had been growing 

 close under his nose. If so, it may be some consolation to him to 

 learn that other botanists also are sometimes liable to commit similar, 

 and indeed much greater oversights. I will tell him what happened 

 to myself. My first acquaintance with that prince of British Ranun- 

 culi, R. Lingua, in a perfectly wild state, was on the occasion of a vi- 

 sit to the fens at Whittlesea Mere. There the plant grew in great 

 abundance, luxuriance and beauty, rearing its ample, bright blossoms 

 some feet above the surface of the ground or water, to the no small 

 satisfaction of a botanist who might see it for the first time in its na- 

 tive state. I was not then aware that Ranunculus Lingua was even a 

 Warwickshire plant ; however, the very next summer I found an old, 

 over-grown pit, in this parish (Allesley), full of the Ranunculus ! and 

 in this situation I have not the least doubt it had grown time out of 

 mind ; for the pit was one of those neglected spots, which, in spite of 

 inclosures and all agricultural improvements, had retained its primi- 

 tive character unchanged and unmolested by " man's meddling." 



But to return now to the Botrychium : my friend and neighbour, 

 the Rev. W. Thickins, informed me a few weeks ago that he had 

 found this fern near Coleshill Pool, in the earlier part of this summer, 

 as since recorded by him in the ' Phytologist ' (Phytol. iii. 222). 

 Guided by his direction, I lately visited the spot, and accordingly 

 found the Botrychium in good abundance ; more so than I have ever 

 seen it elsewhere. I might have gathered in a short time, I dare say, 

 forty specimens, or more, within the space of less than an acre of ground. 

 Now what may seem strange, and to do me no credit as a searcher 

 for plants, is, that although this ground has been known to me from 

 my earliest years, and to my father before me, we never found there 

 Botrychium Lunaria ; neither, I may add, did Lady Aylesford ever 

 discover it in this locality, though she frequently botanized about 

 Coleshill Pool, and had a most keen eye for a minute plant. Nay, 

 more, I was over the very spot last summer (1847), in company with 

 some botanical friends, and we did not observe the fern. True it is, 

 we were not on the look out for moonwort ; nor had I the least idea 

 that it had ever been found on Coleshill Heath, till Mr. Thickins 

 subsequently reminded me that in the second edition of Newman's 

 Ferns it is stated that "Mr. Murcott has observed it on heathy 

 ground near the upper part of Coleshill Bog." But a botanist, I ad- 

 mit, ought to have his eyes open at all times and in all places, for 

 Vo. Lin. 2 R 



