956 



medio bipinnata, in apice rliacliis longe producta, solum acute dentato-incisa est, quod 

 idem de rhachidibus propriis pinnarum oblongo-lanceolatarum longe v. longissime pro- 

 ductavum valet. Lacinise omnes lanceolate, acutae, acutissimas et profunde inciso- 

 dentatae. Sori breves solitarii in laciniis, lias demum obtegentes. Indusia membra- 

 nacea.' Sadl. Epiph. 1. c." — Id. p. 51. 



6. HyinenophyllacecB. Trichomanes speciosum. Although four years 

 have now elapsed, it will be fresh in the recollection of many of our 

 readers, how strenuously the author urged the adoption of the name 

 speciosum in preference to that of hrevisetum ; how the world of Bri- 

 tish botanists was almost to a man arrayed against him ; how it was 

 held to be impossible either that a tropical plant should exist in Ire- 

 land, or that, so existing, Robert Brown should have overlooked the 

 fact. It has come within the compass of our knowledge, that the dar- 

 ing alteration was repeatedly pointed out as a proof of our author's 

 want of information and want of ability to grapple with the subject of 

 nomenclature. What has now become of the name brevisetum ? 

 There is but one instance of its being retained ; we allude to the 5th 

 edition of Hooker's ' British Flora : ' and here we find the name bre- 

 visetum restored, and that of speciosum degraded to the rank of a sy- 

 nonyme ; not as the speciosum of Willdenow — not as the speciosum 

 of Mr. Newman, who pointed out its identity with Willdenow's plant, 

 but of the Edinburgh Catalogue; and yet the authors of that Catalogue 

 merely adopt Mr. Newman's views, as is candidly admitted by Mr. 

 Babington himself. 



We turn to a pleasanter subject, the discovery of a new form, if not 

 species, of Trichomanes ; one so distinct that Mr. Smith supposes it 

 to be the Trich. radicans of Swartz. Mr. Mackay's specimens now be- 

 fore us, are so labelled on Mr. Smith's authority ; but surely this has 

 been done somewhat too hastily, for in all the specimens of T. radi- 

 cans we have seen, the frond is perfectly sessile, whereas in all the 

 Irish specimens it is distinctly stipitate. Mr. Newman has, we think, 

 exercised a sound discretion in keeping the name of radicans quite 

 out of view. Whether or not the new plant could by possibility be 

 the true T. radicans; whether the Killarney plant was really distinct, 

 and whether, if not distinct, Swartz's name should not be applied to 

 both ; are questions which were agitated for months without any sa- 

 tisfactory result. The author, after citing the published notices of 

 this interesting plant, thus continues. 



" Mr. Andrews has obligingly furnished me with the following characters of the 

 two plants. The first I will call Trichomanes speciosum, var. Andrewsii. 



" ' Trichomanes ? Frond lanceolate, twice pinnated, lower pinnae distant, 



