306 ON NATUKE-PRiNTiNG. [October, 



Next to possessing the plants alive, we choose to have them dead, 

 or dried in our hortus siccus, laid out carefully and in order. In 

 looking at them there as occasion calls, we are reminded of the 

 pleasure and satisfaction felt in our rambles and walks to col- 

 lect them, particularly when it was for Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, 

 or H. tunbridgense, on Linx Tor, Dartmoor, and the valley of 

 Trebartha, near Launceston, places not more than fifteen miles 

 apart ; or it might be for the Ceterach officinarum, from the an- 

 cient tower of Brading church, or the Osmunda regalis from the 

 valley of Alverstone, in the Isle of Wight, There are pleasures 

 beyond the mere possession of these plants which the volumes 

 of Nature-printed Ferns fail to give us ; besides, there is sufficient 

 in the plants when dried to enable the botanist to recognize 

 and remember their particular structure, having previously ex- 

 amined them in a living state. 



We do not perceive, as some of the reviewers of this work tell 

 the public, that the Ferns seem to grow upon the pages of Mr. 

 Moore^s work, or they form a hortus siccus of pteridology in them- 

 selves. It is true that the forms of the fronds are correctly shown, 

 but the spore-cases, by which Ferns are most particularly distin- 

 guished in genera, are not sufficiently defined ; the botanist when 

 he looks at them must be able to decide whether the spore-cases 

 are circular, or confluent, or linear; or covered by an indusium, 

 reniform, peltate, or hooded ; or surrounded by a fringed invo- 

 lucre or oblong, curved; or in elongate groups, with a straight 

 indusium ; or elongate, straight, in parallel pairs ; or elongate, 

 scattered among imbricated chaflfy scales ; or continuous or not 

 continuous ; oblong or rounded ; or the receptacles two-valved, 

 or urn-shaped, and such-like distinctions. 



One of our contemporary journals for this month, speaking 

 of these Nature-printed Ferns, tells us " that many of the rarer 

 Ferns so prized by collectors are not often the most beautiful, as 

 for example the Asplerdum germanicum." 



This may be matter of opinion, or fancy, or taste of the col- 

 lector ; but the botanist sees beauty in all the plants of creation, 

 dififerent only in degree. Life itself is beauty of the highest 

 order, and the difference in form is more of a distinctive cha- 

 racter. The most earnest admirers of the works of the Creator, 

 who see in all the manifestation of his wisdom, power, and good- 

 ness, do not speak of them as beautiful and ugly, or as high 



