256 



In conclusion, I beg lo solicit communicalions and suggestions 

 from any lady or gentleman who is disposed to regard my proposi- 

 tion favourably. 



Edward Newman. 

 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, 

 July 13, 1851. 



Attempt to Characterize another apparently undescrihed Species of 

 Lastrea. By Edward Newman. 



In describing Lastrea multiflora, I have said, " The stem is very 

 stout at the base, and thickly clothed with long pointed scales, which 

 are of a very dark brown colour along the middle, pale brown and 

 nearly transparent at the sides ;" and again, " When the fronds are 

 young, every part of their under surface, more particularly the ribs, 

 abounds with minute stalked glands, imparting a mealiness of appear- 

 ance to the plant, which distinguishes it from L. spinosa as the same 

 character separates P. Dryopteris and P. calcareum." By singular 

 good fortune, I believe that I possess the very plants from which 

 these descriptions were made, and I now find that the plants possess- 

 ing the peculiar scales above described are without the glands, and the 

 plants possessing the glands have somewhat different scales. Hence 

 I conclude that although each description is in itself an exact and 

 accurate statement of phenomena observed, it was a grave error to 

 publish them as though they were exhibited by an individual plant 

 then before me, and would certainly be found in combination in other 

 plants. I am led to the detection and correction of this error by the 

 following circumstances. 



About twelve months ago, ray friend William Bennett showed me 

 some fronds of a fern gathered in Gloucestershire, which neither he 

 nor his son E. T. Bennett could pronounce to be either L. dilatata or 

 L. spinosa. I gave these fronds the best examination I could at the 

 time, and found that while they possessed the general appearance as 

 well as the glands above noticed as characteristic of L. multiflora, 

 Iheir scales or paleie were destitute of that very peculiar dark central 

 marking which is so conspicuous in that species. I immediately per- 

 ceived that the characters of glands and paleae which I have quoted 

 above were in all probability faulty, but still I was reluctant to write 

 anything on the subject until the opportunity was afforded me of 

 seeing the living plant. This desideratum was supplied through the 



