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384. Plants observed in the Vale of Calder. Yesterday afternoon 

 I had a ramble in the vale of the Calder, between Brighouse and Sow- 

 erby bridge, a distance of about five miles. The following is a list of 

 the rarer plants which I gathered; if you think it will be interesting 

 to any of your readers, it is at your service. Lolium temulentum, ar- 

 vense and multiflorum; — the last plant I found witli from two to six- 

 teen flowers. Bromus secalinus, var. stricta ; the spikelets of this 

 plant are always upright, not drooping, as in the common state. Bro- 

 mus arvensis ; this I found in three different places ; it appears to be 

 not very uncommon in that part. Cynosurus echinatus, Myosotis 

 collina, Erysimum cheiranthoides, and Asperula arvensis. — Samuel 

 Gibson; Hebden Bridge, September 21, 1843. 



385. Description of Aspidium recurvum.* The announcement of 

 a new edition of your ' British Ferns ' induces me to trouble you with 

 a remark, for which you may perhaps find room in ' The Phytologist.' 

 In the 4th vol. of the ' Magazine of Natural History,' under the head 

 of " List of Rare Plants found in the neighbourhood of Penzance " 

 (p. 162), I mentioned, among other things, Aspidium dilatatum, var. 

 recurvwn, not knowing how else to designate what I believed to be 

 an undescribed British fern ; and in a note at the foot of the page I 

 expressed an opinion to that effect. Since the publication of that 

 list, the fern has been noticed by several botanists, and recorded by 

 yourself as a variety of dilatatum. I am perfectly aware that dilata- 

 tum is a most variable species, assuming as it does very different ap- 

 pearances according to soil, situation, shade, moisture, &c. Recur- 

 vum is equally given (if! may so say) to "ring the changes" on variety, 

 but to a practised eye it is in all its forms readily distinguishable from 

 every form of dilatatum. And I now beg to say, that after close ob- 

 servation of the fern in the neighbourhood of Penzance in the year 

 1817, and on the Irish mountains some years previously, as well as 

 from an intimate acquaintance with the plant in a cultivated state from 

 that time to the present, I am confirmed in my original opinion, that 

 the fern in question is a species distinct from dilatatum ; and as such 

 I hope to see it noticed in your forthcoming new edition of ' British 

 Ferns.' I may add, that in the above opinion I am borne out by that 

 of the late Mr. James Dickson — no mean authority on such a subject 

 — and by that of Mr. Drummond, formerly curator of the Cork gar- 

 den. 1 believe this curled fern is sometimes known among botanists 

 by the name of Aspidium spinulosura ; and, for all 1 know to the con- 



* In a ktlcr lo E. Newman. 



