1157 



" When he wishes to make a ' gravatana' he searches in the forest 

 till he finds two straight and tall stems of the ' Pashiuba niiri ' of such 

 proportionate thicknesses that one could be contained within the other. 

 When he returns home he takes a long slender rod which he has pre- 

 pared on purpose, generally made of the hard and elastic wood of the 

 * Pashiuba barriguda,' and with it pushes out the pith from both the 

 stems, and then with a little bunch of the roots of a tree fern, cleans 

 and polishes the inside till the bore becomes as hard and as smooth 

 as polished ebony. He then carefully inserts the slenderer tube 

 within the larger, placing it so that any curve in the one may counter- 

 act that in the other. Should it still be not quite correct, he binds it 

 carefully to a post in his house till it is perfectly straight and dry. 

 He then fits a mouth-piece of wood to the smaller end of the tube, so 

 that the arrow may go out freely at the other; and when he wishes 

 to finish his work neatly, winds spirally round it from end to end, the 

 shining bark of a creeper. Near the lower extremity, he forms a sight 

 with the large curved cutting tooth of the Paca {Coelogenus paca), 

 which he fixes on with pitch, and the gravatana is then fit for use." — 

 P. 39. 



* The Handbook of British Ferns. By Thomas Moore, F.L.S., &c., 

 &c.. Curator of the Botanic Garden of the Society of Apothe- 

 caries, Chelsea, and Author of the ' Popular History of British 

 Ferns,' &c., &c.' Second Edition. London : R. Groombridge 

 & Sons, and W. Pamplin. 1853. 16mo. 232 pp. Text; 

 numerous Woodcuts. Price 5s. 



It is a difficult task to notice this work ; but my voluntary offer on 

 the wrapper of the last number compels me to do so. I have only 

 one observation to make respecting it ; and that is, that, although 

 there can be no rational objection to one author borrowing an occa- 

 sional sentance or idea from another, nevertheless he is bound, in 

 manly candour, in common courtesy, to acknowledge the obligation. 

 Now, Mr. Moore has throughout availed himself of my ' British Ferns,' 

 not only without acknowledgment, but, as I think, without judgment. 

 When 1 say without judgment, I mean to say that he has adopted the 

 incorrect equally with the correct. Thus, my correct figure of Tri- 

 chomanes speciosura, at page 315, and my very incorrect and unbo- 

 tanical enlarged figure of a fragment of the same plant, at p. 316, are 

 copied, without acknowledgment, at p. 201 of the ' Handbook.' Of 

 VOL. IV. 7 I 



