49 



7ne). Now this is the truth, but then it is not all the truth, and 

 therefore gives a wrong impression, for you know as well as I do that 

 Mr. Newman Jirst gave me a specific character, in the ' Naturalist's 

 Almanack,' and that Mr. Babington followed Mr. Newman, adopting 

 his character almost word for word. All Mr. Newman's " specific 

 descriptions" are in the 'Naturalist's Almanack' for 1844, and you 

 will find the original specific description of myself is properly refer- 

 red to in the ' British Ferns,' in the very page you have so attentively 

 studied. • 



You go on to say, " We cannot say much in favour of the figure of 

 Lastrea recurva of Mr. Newman (at hearing which no doubt Mr. 

 Newman will tear his hair, as the ancients were wont to do when 

 suffering under the displeasure of the gods), which has a very lax 

 habit, with distant pinnules, and moreover, being stated to be ' one- 

 fourth the natural size,' and, though folded, yet occupying the entire 

 8vo page, must be a large plant, — nearly four feet high, including the 

 stipes." I will not assume that you have ever heard of Euclid, 

 Cocker or Walkingame, all of them vulgar writers for school-boys, 

 men who were ignorant of botany, but who happen to have enjoyed 

 a wholesome reputation in their peculiar departments of mensuration 

 and calculation. I will conclude you know nothing of them, — 

 nothing at all ; but I assure you they are respectable authorities in 

 their way, and, guided by their teachings, I will give you my 

 deductions. I first measure Mr. Newman's likeness of me without 

 the stipes, and find it covers less than eight superficial inches ; I 

 then take up Euclid, and find that, to obtain a superficies four times 

 as great, 1 have to multiply the number of superficial inches by four ; 

 I then consult the recondite although vulgar Cocker, and find that 

 four times eight are thirty-two; and finally, I check this calculation 

 by Walkingame. This may be fairly estimated as a length of eight 

 inches, and an average breadth of four inches. My stipes is 

 represented as long as, or perhaps a little longer than, my leaf, say 

 eight inches and a half, and thus we have a total length of sixteen 

 inches and a half, which you, — not designedly, of course not ; not to 

 raise a laugh against Mr. Newman and myself, of course not ; but 

 from a want of acquaintance with the authors I have mentioned, and 

 a consequent ignorance of the mode of calculating superficial admea- 

 surements, — have converted into four feet. I will support Mr. Newman, 

 by saying that his estimate of my average magnitude is a correct one. 



You then proceed to compare me with Nephrodium Foenisecii of 

 Mr. Lowe; with what success I will not pretend to say, but as I grow 

 Vol IV. H 



