438 THE FERNS OF BARMOUTH. [February, 



and only in its very dwarf, bright, crisped, and tufted form. It 

 is to be found on several old walls near Barmouth, and on the 

 Harlech road, between Barmouth and Llanbedr. It grows in 

 very dense tufts, the greater part of the fronds being barren, and 

 of a peculiarly bright vivid green. The outer and larger fronds 

 alone are seed-bearing. Every smallest part of the frond is dis- 

 tinctly concave, which gives the plant its crisped appearance, and 

 at a little distance it might almost be mistaken for the Parsley 

 Fern. The fronds do not exceed a few inches in length. It is 

 hard to believe that this is the same Fern which is found five or 

 six times as large in moist woods, and is sometimes known as 

 Lastrea Foenisecii or dumetorum. To us the most expressive name 

 is that suggested by Newman, L. concava. It is to be hoped that 

 botanists will be sparing of this pretty Fern when they find it, as 

 it is not very plentiful. We have but one other Fern to mention, the 

 curious Moss- like Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, which may be found 

 among the rocks, in the streams on the Cader Idris side of the 

 river, and near Dolgelley, as well as at Pistill-y-Caen. It pro- 

 bably exists in the streams nearer to Barmouth, but we have not 

 seen it ourselves. The other and rarer Filmy Fern {H. tunbrid- 

 gense) is said to grow near Barmouth, as also the Adder's-tongue 

 and the Moonwort, but we cannot verify these. 



On the Nativity or Spontaneity of Inula Hblenium, Vinca 

 MINOR, and Sambucus Ebulus. 



It has been afl&rmed, in the ' Phytologist,' that Vinca minor 

 and Sambucus Ebulus are entitled at least to the same civic 

 status as that which is assigned to Inula Helenium. 



If nativity depend on the unquestioned spontaneous growth 

 of a plant in any one place, — on its wildness, say, in only one 

 locality, in one county, — its claims to be ranked among the truly 

 British species are sufficiently valid to entitle it to this distinction. 

 But if its spontaneity or wildness is not confined to one county 

 or single locality, it has surely a fortiori still higher claims to 

 be considered a true native. 



In the only systematic work on this subject, the distribu- 

 tion of the British species, this principle is most capriciously or 

 pedantically ignored. In the ' Cybele ' (see sub specie Inula Hele- 



