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nan-owed to the Nephrodium fragrans of Hooker and Greville's ' Ico- 

 nes ' and the Lastrsea rigida of English botanists. Now to the first 

 of these the Linna^an description alone strictly applies, both as to the 

 form of the frond, ^'' lanceolate,^'' and the heaping together, "confertas," 

 of the pinnae. Svrartz describes the frond of L. rigida as ovato-lan- 

 ceolate, which quite agrees with my specimens of the plant from York- 

 shire and Lancashire : the pinnae also are not closer than in the great 

 mass of bipinnate Lastrasae. I would here remark that in the section 

 of Polypodium in which P. fragrans is described in the ' Systema Na- 

 turae,' the term " confertae " is not employed, except with reference to 

 the pinnae of P. fragrans. These comparisons are, in my opinion, suf- 

 ficient to prove that Linnaeus applied the specific name of " fragrans " 

 to the fern which is figured in the ' I cones Filicum ' as Nephrodium 

 fragrans. It is indeed true that difference of soil and temperature 

 might produce such a change, as to cause both an approximation of 

 all the pinnae, and a shortening of the lower ones, so as to make the 

 fronds of Aspidium rigidum, Sw., correspond to two of the Linnaean 

 characters, (as I have observed in Asplenium lanceolatum, Sw,) ; but 

 I think we have no right to assume that the great founder of Syste- 

 matic Botany took his description from an aberrant form, when we 

 have a species whose normal characteristics so well agree with those 

 given in the ' Systema Naturae.' That Lastraea rigida and Lastraea 

 firagrans are distinct types of the same species, no one who has com- 

 pared the plants, side by side, will, I am confident, be inclined to ad- 

 mit : — the elongated acute triangular pinnae of the former can never 

 be converted into the oblong obtuse ones of the latter. An examina- 

 tion of the specimens of Polypodium fragrans, in the Linnaean herba- 

 rium would perhaps settle the question ; and I would therefore advise 

 Mr. Newman to avail himself of his means of access to the said col- 

 lection, in order to obtain as much information as possible upon the 

 subject. If these specimens agree with the Linnaean description, all 

 doubt will be removed : if not, we must conclude that through mis- 

 take they have found their way into the collection, and we must con- 

 sequently revert to the published characters. I am inclined to agree 

 in the spirit of Reichenbach's observation, though not to participate 

 in the sneer on the value of the Linngean herbarium, when he says, 

 " Opera viri magni mundo communia sunt, herbarium fallax imico pos- 

 sessore gaudet." — W. S. Hore, M.A.; Stoke, Devonport, Jan. 9, 1844. 

 445. Note on the Polypodium fragrans of Hudson. The Polypo- 

 dium fragrans of Hudson (quaere Linn.) seems to be considered as a 

 mere nominis umbra by all modern writers on ferns ; and yet there is 



