1859.] REVIEWS. 23 



adjective to the neuter noun, a practice offensive to Priscian^s 

 ghostj if that eminent grammarian concerns himself about sub- 

 lunary matters. But we hope he is better employed than in 

 fretting his heart about the solecisms of learned and unlearned 

 botanists : if he does, his spirit can have no rest. The offences 

 against grammatical purity and linguistic refinement are not 

 few nor slight. We must not forget the Fern, nor merge it 

 in the name. We are informed (see Hooker, Sp. Fil. 127) 

 "that the first who separated this Fern from the genus Pteris 

 was Bernhardij and he included Pt. crispa, L., in his Allosorus, 

 with the very imperfect character ' Sporangia cathetogyrata, 

 sessilia, subaggregata. Hyposporangia subcommunia; margine 

 libero, subpellucida ;' but Allosorus has been made a receptacle 

 for Ferns of very varied structure.^' Here follows a justification 

 of the author^s uniting some quasi species into one, for which 

 there is not room here. " When an old plant (one previously 

 known and described), is found in a very distant part of the 

 world from its previously-known locality" [a queasy-conscienced 

 grammarian would say, "in a part of the world very distant 

 from its," etc.], " one is apt to look upon it as something new; 

 and, as is the case with the Cedar of Lebanon and the Cedar of 

 Himalaya, it is very difl&cult to remove the impression once 

 made upon the mind, although no tangible character to dis- 

 tinguish them can be detected." The various forms known to 

 the author are next enumerated and described. Here the latter 

 is omitted. 



" 1, 0. crispa, a. forma Europcea. Hab. General throughout middle 

 and northern Europe, especially in moist districts ; as far north as Lap- 

 land, and Lake Baikal, in Siberia ; south to the Pyrenees, Spain, Astu- 

 rias, altitude from coast-line 8-9000 feet. 



" b. Forma Indica. I place this var. next to the European form, 

 because in the aggregate of specimens before me, the sterile fronds are 

 exactly as in our European plant, that is, of two kinds, the one kind with 

 the obovate segments deeply divided, serrated, single-nerved ; the other 

 with the pinnules elliptical, deeply serrated, and pinnatedly veined, 

 whereas the fertile pinnules more resemble those of the following 

 (American) form. . . . Hab. N. India, elevation 12,000 feet; Alps of 

 Kamoun, interior of Sikkim-Himalaya, elev. 1100-1300 feet. Hooker and 

 Thompson. 



" c. Forma Americana. Hab. N. and chiefly N. W. America, between 

 56° and 60° north." 



