Bihliographical Notices, 141 



possesses, nor the pencil of the artist convey information not afforded 



by the specimen before him. Here, at any rate, what we do get is 



perfectly trustworthy. 



u The term Ferns is intended to be understood in the Linnsean 



sense, as including Filices, EquisetacecBy Marsileacece, and Lycopo- 



diacecB. 



The plates are G6 in number, and to each of them a single leaf of 

 letter-press is devoted. This latter contains a specific character for 

 the species, a tolerably complete collection of references and syno- 

 nyms, and some account of the plant, especially of its range in foreign 

 countries ; but no description. It does seem to us that a little less 

 detail in the geographical part of these remarks (seeing that the 

 author has given or is about to give them even more fully in his 

 valuable * Species Filicum'), and a tolerably complete description 

 from his experienced pen, would have rendered the book more ac- 

 ceptable to the class for which it is intended. The majority of the 

 collectors and cultivators of British Ferns would have been satisfied 

 with a general statement on the former of these subjects, but do 

 want the latter, and will be disappointed at not finding it. Also, an 

 occasional discussion of the specific distinctions, real or supposed, 

 between the allied plants would have added greatly to the value of 

 the work. Almost all persons except professed botanists will proba- 

 bly now use the book for its plates alone ; and concerning these it is 

 not easy to use too strong terms of praise. They are incomparably 

 the best representations of our ferns that haye appeared. In some 

 few cases, where a frond was too large for complete representation 

 on the page, we should have liked to see a reduced drawing of it 

 appended, so as to convey to the inexperienced an idea of its general 

 aspect. For instance. Poly podium alpestre does not furnish to us a 

 clear idea of the appearance of that elegant plant ; also, a plate of the 

 remarkable form or species called P. flexile by some authors might 

 well have been given. It is true that a little scrap of P. flexile is 

 drawn on the plate, but that is far from conveying the information 

 required. 



The two Woodsias are beautifully represented ; and these plates 

 fully confirm the now prevalent belief that there are really two spe- 

 cies in Britain. They represent finer specimens than we have ever 

 seen in this country — a fact that should be borne in mind by students, 

 who have to learn to appreciate their differences when gathered in 

 the very diminutive states in which we usually find them. It is then 

 often far from easy to distinguish them ; and we much wish that our 

 eminent author had stated the best mode of doing so with tolerable 

 certainty. Even the plates given by Sowerby in * English Botany ' 

 and * The Ferns ' represent fronds which are larger than the usual 

 wild state of the plants. 



"We cannot help suspecting that the venation is incorrectly drawn 

 in the case of Nephrodium cristatum. Both Newman and Sowerby 

 give a much more complicated structure to it ; and, indeed, some au- 

 thors have laid considerable weight upon its being greatly branched. 



