948 



merit, combined with the claim of priority, without reference to the 

 reputation of one author or the obscurity of another. 



In the synopsis with which the author commences his ' History,' 

 there is evinced a total disregard of established notions ; but in the 

 History itself, this disregard is kept more under control, and large 

 concessions are made to what the author evidently regards as received 

 errors. Thus, the artificial genus Polypodium is preserved in the 

 History, but the species are separated in the synopsis : the names of 

 Polypodium calcareum and Hymenophyllum Wilsoni are given in the 

 History, the prior and original names of Polypodium robertianum 

 [Hoffmann) and Hymenophyllum unilaterale [Willdenow) in the sy- 

 nopsis. These and numerous other instances of attempted concilia- 

 tion, of noticing without reforming the manifold errors which have so 

 long been perpetuated through the most gross carelessness and inat- 

 tention, were, in our opinion, uncalled for ; and we think the author 

 would have done better to revert at once to what he considered the 

 correct nomenclature, even though every name employed by Sir J. E. 

 Smith had been thereby obliterated from the catalogue of British 

 ferns. The number of errors into which Sir J. E. Smith has fallen, 

 exceeds all belief ; and some of them appear inexplicable. Knowing 

 how intimately Sir James was acquainted with the works of Roth and 

 Hoffmann, seeing how constantly he quotes them throughout his de- 

 scriptions of the ferns, it seems scarcely credible that in two instan- 

 ces at least he should have renamed ferns which they had carefully 

 described, and have given them to the world as altogether new ; and 

 that in another instance he should have described one fern under three 

 names, dwelling on differences which had no existence. The axiom, 

 de mortuis nil nisi honum, was doubtless conceived in love, and is 

 worthy of general acceptation ; but we deny that the grave should be 

 made thus to consecrate error, thereby conferring an injury both on 

 the dead and the living, robbing those who are departed of their just 

 reputation, and diverting the living student from the paths of truth. 



The arrangement adopted in Mr. Newman's ' History,' is not cha- 

 racterised by much novelty. The divisions are these. 



1. Equisetacecd. 



2. AdianiacecB, including Adiantum, Lomaria and Pteris. 



3. PolypodiacecB, including Allosorus, Polypodium and Woodsia. 



4. Aspidiacece, including Cystopteris, Polystichum and Lastra^a. 



5. AspleniacecB, including Athyrium, Asplenium, Scolopendrium 



and Ceterach. 

 0. HijmenophyUacea;, including Trichomanes and Hymenophyllum. 



