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tion of changes so radical and complete ; but Mr. John Smith's paper 

 on the same subject, read almost immediately afterwards at the Lin- 

 nean Society, and perhaps the most profound and useful treatise 

 ever presented to that body, obtained a hearing and a respect which 

 was denied to Mr. Newman as an unknown botanist. We believe this 

 is always the case ; great changes, to ensure prompt attention and re- 

 spect must be introduced by great men, by men of established repu- 

 tation ; or they fail of the desired object. Such was very decidedly 

 the case as regards our author ; and botanists, who one month pro- 

 claimed the absurdity of Mr. Newman's innovations, were seen the 

 following month bending the supple knee to the same innovations, 

 when sanctioned by the European reputation of Mr. Smith. Soon 

 after this confirmation of Mr. Newman's views. Dr. Balfour and JNIr. 

 Babington, the authors of the Edinburgh Catalogue, adopted the al- 

 terations, and were the means of disseminating them from John o' 

 Groat's to the Laud's End. But, in the midst of its successful career, 

 the new nomenclature met a most decided check in the publication of 

 the fifth edition of Sir W. Hooker s ' British Flora,' wherein we were 

 astonished to find the changes introduced by Mr. Newman, not only 

 fathered upon the authors of the Edinburgh Catalogue, but the new 

 names given as synonymes, and the old nomenclature restored in all 

 its glory. The ' British Flora ' was almost immediately followed by 

 Mr. Babington's Manual, and very recently by the list of the Botani- 

 cal Society of London, principally from the pen of that accomplished 

 botanist, Mr. Watson; and both these authors adopt Mr. Newman's 

 nomenclature. It would be idle for us to deny the weight and autho- 

 rity of a name like Sir W. Hooker's, and we do not hesitate to express 

 our belief that it will have great influence in retarding the adoption 

 of the altered nomenclature of ferns ; but only of retarding it : the 

 time has now arrived when each successive author enquires for him- 

 self, when he takes little or nothing for granted, and without pinning 

 his faith on the sleeve of an individual write)-, ventures to con- 

 sult the works of Ray, * Schkuhr, Kunze, Svvartz, Weiss, Presl, 

 Schott, Dietrich, Decandolle, Roth, Wahlenberg, Weber, Hoffmann, 

 &c., and to form a judgment of his own. This being the case, we are 

 willing to abide the issue ; and confidently hope eventually to see 

 that nomenclature adopted which possesses the greatest intrinsic 



*No man can form a just estimate of what is due to each classification of ferns, 

 without going back even to Ray, whose ' Methodus Plantarum ' contains the draft of 

 the system, which, under Sir J. E. Smith, Swartz and Willdenow, subsequently be- 

 came so famous. 



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