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valions, were seen the following month bending the supple knee to the same innova- 

 tions ; ' and ' Dr. Balfour and Mr. Bahington, by adopting the alterations, were the 

 means of disseminating them from John o'Groats to the Land's End.' It seems tlie 

 author of the British Flora did not bend the supple knee to tlie innovations, and the 

 reviewer proceeds : ' 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. J. Hooker's 

 British Flora, wherein we were astonished to find the changes introduced by Mr. New- 

 man, not on\j fathered upon the authors of the ' Edinburgh Catalogue,^ but the new 

 names given as synonymes, and the old nomenclature restored in all its glori/." — p. 290. 



To the above passage is appended the following long foot-note. 



" It is far from being our general intention to notice remarks made in reviews of 

 Books : but the Editor of this Journal, as the Author of the ' British Flora,'' must in 

 justice to himself declare that he is not aware that he has in any way acted unfairly 

 by Mr. Newman. He presumes by the expression of ' fathering the changes introdu- 

 ced by Mr. Newman upon the authors of the Edinburgh Catalogue,' it is meant to 

 imply that he has given to those gentlemen a credit for names (' a nomenclature ') 

 which is due to Mr. Newman alone. But surely no one will consider that to be the 

 case, who has seen the little explanation in the preftice to the British Flora, (ed. 5, p. 

 viii.). It was never meant to imply that the Editors of the Catalogue were the 

 authors of those names : and really upon looking at the places among the Ferns where 

 the ' Edinb. Cat.' is quoted, the difference of names is so trifling that it is marvellous 

 how such a charge could, in fairness, any way be made. One would suppose that by 

 ' the old nomenclature being restored in all its glory,' that the author had gone back 

 to the days of Dillenius and Ray ; but, so far at least as the Edinburgh Catalogue is 

 concerned, the difference of names, ' fathered ' upon the Edinb. Cat., which Mr. New- 

 man's reviewer claims for hin), and in the British Flora, amounts to these. In the 

 latter work, the genus Aspidium of Swartz is divided into two sections ; 1st. those spe- 

 cies with orbicular involucres, fixed by the centre {Aspidium, Br.), and 2ndly. those 

 with reniform involucres, fixed by the sinus, {Nephrodium, Rich, Br.) The first are 

 called Polystichum in the Edinburgh Catalogue, while the latter are called Lastraa ; 

 and in the genus Asplenium, as defined in British Flora, 2 species {A. Filix fcemina, 

 and A. fontanum), are, in the Edinb. Cat., called Athyrium,. Cryptogramma of Brown 

 and Hook, is called Allosorus in the Ed. Cat. ; Blechnum boreale, Sw., is called Lo- 

 maria Spicant, and Trichomanes brevisetum, Br. and Hook, is the T. speciosum in Ed. 

 Cat. Now the whole of these changes (we are not discussing the merits or correct- 

 ness of the names) no more originated with Mr. Newman, they are no more his origi- 

 nal ' nomenclature,' which is declared ' to be toto ccelo at variance with that so long in 

 use,' than they did with the authors of the Edinburgh Catalogue. The genus Poly, 

 stichum was invented by Roth in the year 1800, and is absolutely identical with Aspi- 

 dium, as it stands in the British Flora ; including both Polystichum and Lastraa of 

 the Edinburgh Catalogue. Lustra originated in M. Bory de St. Vincent in 1824, and 

 was formed to include the Polypodia ! Oreopteris, Thelypteris and unitum. Presl in 

 1836 altered the character, to make it comprise certain Aspidiaceous plants, banished 

 all Bory's species, and was the author of the names of the Lastrcea as they stand in the 

 Edinb. Cat. Athyrium also is a genus of Roth (1800), adopted (in part by Presl), and 

 the species above mentioned are of the same antiquity. We are well aware that Cryp- 

 togramma crispa, Br. is the Allosorus of Bernhardi, (1806) ; but the Cheilanthes odora. 



