950 



1. Equisetacea. These have been so recently described in the pa- 

 ges of ' The Phytologist,' that there has been Httle time or opportu- 

 nity for alteration or addition ; but we may notice that a further guide 

 to the detection of species is afforded in the careful figures of trans- 

 verse sections of the stem of each. 



2. AdiantacecB. In this group we invite attention to the detailed 

 description of the fructification of Pteris. It seems rather extraordi- 

 nary that although Mr. Newman's views upon this subject have been 

 four years before the public, that they have been allowed to pass un- 

 noticed by Sir W. Hooker and Mr. Babington, both of whom, in their 

 subsequently published works, revert to the old, and, as we consider, 

 totally erroneous description. This question remains an open one ; 

 but we are unable to resist the conviction, that Mr. Newman's solu- 

 tion, backed as we find it by the careful observations of Mr. Wilson 

 and Mr. Jenner, is the correct one : the passage is too long to trans- 

 fer to our pages, and we have already cited (Phytol. 836) a compressed 

 description of the genus fi'om the ' Naturalists' Almanack.' 



3. PolypodiacecB, In this group we have to mention the restoration 

 of Bolton's original name of alpina to the Woodsia hyperborea of 

 Swartz. On the preceding page we have introduced Mr. Newman's 

 portraiture of this pretty little fern. 



4. AspidiacecB. Under this division the dilatata question is gravely 

 discussed, and, as we think, satisfactorily settled. The author begins 

 with this candid admission of his former erroneous opinions. 



" On looking more carefully into those similarities which I supposed of sufficient 

 importance to warrant the association of many forms under the specific nam-e of dila- 

 tata 1 find them invariably the concomitants of youth rather than the characteristics 

 of perfection, and they become by degrees more and more obliterated, as the plants 

 year by year advance towards maturity. The differences, on the other hand, so equi- 

 vocally developed in seedling or starved individuals, become distinctly pronounced in 

 the adult and vigorous ; and a comparison of these, leaves me no choice but to cancel 

 my former observations as erroneous, and to consider the names dilatata and spinulosa 

 as having been applied to a family rather than to a species. Admitting this, it be- 

 comes a task of great delicacy to select an individual which shall bear alone all the 

 honors of either patronymic. Fully appreciating the difficulty of the case, I have 

 omitted both these names, and employed others which were originally, as now, restrict- 

 ed to one species." — p. 208. 



Three species are then carefully and fully described, under the 

 names of Lastrsea spinosa, L. multiflora and L. recurva ; the descrip- 

 tions occupying twenty-seven pages, and being accompanied by nu- 

 merous figures illustrating the circumscription of frond, the form of 

 involucre, and the character of the scales. All the three appear to 



