1857.] REVIEWS. 297 



Trichomanes, are made the representatives of tribes. Hymeno- 

 phyllece have been attached to Trichomanece. Cystopteris and 

 Woodsia are now far separated from Aspidiets, with which they 

 were joined in the former edition. These are the most impor- 

 tant alterations in the arrangement. The conspectus of the Bri- 

 tish genera and species is very much extended : it now occupies 

 twenty pages, and the distinctive characters appear to be well 

 worked out. In the second edition only three varieties of the 

 common Polypody (P. vulgare) are noticed ; in this one there are 

 sixteen, and seven of them are illustrated by large and characte- 

 ristic pinnae (lobes) of their respective fronds. The description 

 and drawing of P. alpestre, var, flexile, is another addition. Poly- 

 stichum angidare is illustrated by several figures of recently-ob- 

 served varieties : some of these are very elegant. The crested 

 variety appears among its greatly diversified curious forms. Se- 

 veral new figures illustrative of some of the most interesting 

 varieties of Scolopendrium are given ; among these /S. vulgare 

 laceratum is one of the handsomest. The varieties of this -pro- 

 tean Fern now amount to fifty, and probably there may be fifty 

 more to be discovered : some of them, viz. infuturo, non in prce- 

 senti, are probably to be formed. Hence it may be inferred that 

 the varieties of some species are infinite. Blechnum boreale is 

 also figured with tasselled and multifid, and even branching lobes, 

 somewhat like a Pieris. We observe that Mr. Moore does not 

 adopt the emendation in the orthography of Spicant proposed by 

 our Chiselhurst correspondent, and printed according to his direc- 

 tions spicans in the ' Phytologist,' vol. i. n.s. p. 301. The writer 

 of this notice examined several editions of Linnseus's works from 

 1762 downwards, but saw no vacillation in the form of this puz- 

 zling specific term. Linnseus certainly either wrote it, or suf- 

 fered it to be both written and printed, Spicant. Had it been 

 only a typographical error, some one of Linnseus's editors would 

 have corrected it : he would have done it himself; for several 

 editions of his works were printed during his life, and, it is to be 

 believed, under his superintendence. 



In Athyrium the var. rhaticum, which was a species in the 

 second edition, is now reduced to its former station under A. 

 Filix-foemina. Mr. Moore, though he looks sharply after varie- 

 ties, does not insist upon every one of them taking rank as spe- 

 cies. This is a consolation to those who think that the division 



N. S. VOL. II. 2 Q 



