282 REVIEWS. [Septe7nber, 



with their size and hixuriance that I sent up plants to my father, who im- 

 mediately brought some specimens to Mr. Moore at the Botanic Gardens. 

 They both remarked the strong resemblance in form and size borne by the 

 Ballynalackan plants to the West Indian Fern Asplenium Icetum, and as 

 yet they have not been able to detect any difference between them. It 

 will be an interesting fact if it can be shown that this plant is identical 

 with A. latum, and that the latter is nothing more than A. marinum 

 growing under circumstances particularly favourable to its development. 



" Ceterach officinarum. Generally abundant. On the table are some 

 dried specimens of a variety of this Fern, abundant in the Ennis neigh- 

 bourhood. The fronds are often as long as twelve or eighteen inches, pin- 

 nate, with margin deeply serrated." 



This is the variety crenatum. See Moore's ' Handbook/ p. 

 215, Mr. Sim, in his Catalogue^ p. 9, notes that "the recorded 

 British variations of this Fern are omitted because inconstant.'' 



The following notice of Adiantum Capillus- Veneris will gratify 

 such botanists as fear that the general popularity of this tribe 

 of plants and the eagerness of collectors to possess them will 

 speedily cause the extirpation of the rarer kinds. 



" I cannot describe my delight when Dr. O'Brien first brought me to 

 the spot (Ballynalackan, Avhere this elegant Fern grows). The cliffs are 

 formed of horizontal beds of limestone, and on the vertical face of these 

 cliffs, in the clefts or interstices between the beds, this mpst exqiusite of all 

 the Ferns grows in its glory ; in fact, for a distance of fully half a mile, if 

 not more, the stratification of the rocks is distinctly marked by the peculiar 

 green hue oi Adiantum Capillus-Veneris. Betvreen this and the sea almost 

 every vertical fissure in the flat bed of rock over which we walked was filled 

 with this Fern, and on the seaside of the road it is associated with the 

 gigantic Asplenium marinum above described." 



Walking on the vertical face of a rock must have been rather 

 a feat even for Irish botanists. 



The author of this paper informs his readers "that all the 

 Wardian cases in Great Britain might be well supplied with 

 Adiantum Capillus-Veneris from Ballynalackan^ and what was 

 taken would hardly be missed." 



Lately there has been much controversy in Dublin about the 

 specific distinctness of Hymenophyllum tunbridgense and H. 

 Wilsoni, or H. unilaterale, and the following is recorded by Mr. 

 Foot :— 



" H. Wilsoni is found growing on exposed cliffs of Old Eed Sandstone 



