444 REVIEWS. [May, 



some good-natured, liberal Hibernian send us an example of this ?) , 

 Lonicei-a Xylosteum (as Irish), Saxifraya Andrewsii, Spircsa Fi- 

 lipendula (as Irish), Simethis albus (what is this?— Asphodelus 

 albus, Miller?), Allium Babingtonii, Equisetum elongatum, Lo- 

 phodium spinosum, Polyporus %tulmus (not betululinus), Nitella 

 hyalina, etc. " The number of additional species given to the 

 world through this medium far exceeds 100." 



There are, it may be, some botanists who would demur to this 

 claim of the Dublin Natural History Society. Some of the 

 species may be new to the members of that learned body, but 

 several of them were known to botanists centuries before the 

 said Society existed, Lonicera and Spiraa for example. These 

 mav have been published as natives of Hibernia by her energetic 

 sons, but they grow in England and in other parts of the world, 

 and were noticed and published by Ray, Smith, and other bota- 

 nists who have been long gathered to their fathers. This number 

 is illustrated by several shaded and coloured lithographs and 

 woodcuts. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



On why Ferns are not Attacked by Insects. 



{From a Correspondent.) 



It would seem that the Earns and their allies are occasionally eaten by 

 aniuT^als. I have myself observed that donkeys frequently crop the fronds 

 of the common Brake (P. aquilina). At page 106 of Fremont's 'Expe- 

 dition to the Eocky Mountains,' the writer says their horses and mules 

 fed upon Eqiiisdum, hyemale, and in another part speaks of their animals 

 luxuriating on " Prele" (Horsetails, Eqidsdum). As E. hyemale contains 

 more sdex in its cuticle than many of the other kinds, the above fact is 

 the more remarkable, and may lead us to infer that the plants of the 

 genus would not remain untouched by the grazing animals. Many species 

 are used for food in tropical countries. In Hue's ' China,' it is stated 

 that in default of other vegetables they boiled the young shoots of a Fern, 

 which they found not unpalatable. Dr. Hooker, in his ' Himalayan 

 Journal,' p. 293, says : " Ferns are more commonly used for food than is 

 supposed. Bolrych'mm virginicum is boiled and eaten in the Himalaya, 

 and by the natives in New Zealand. In Calcutta the Hindoos bod the 

 young tops with their shrimp curries, and both in Sikkim and Nepaid the 

 watery tubers of an Jspidimn are abundantly eaten. So also the pulp of 

 one Tree-Fern affords food, but only in times of scarcity, as does that of 

 another species in New Zealand {Cyathea mfidullaris) ; the pith of all is 



