151 
wherein the author fully explains all the terms which he employs, and 
extends it so that it shall serve also for the “larger treatises” of the 
scientific Francis and the recondite Moore: the veriest tyro cannot 
complain of being left in the dark, however he might have been 
lost for a moment in the technical obscurity of the foregoing quo- 
tations. Here are extracts. 
“ ANTHER, the vessel containing the fertilising farina affixed to the 
top of the stamen or barren filament of a flower or blossom. 
“ Athyrium, a separate class assigned by some writers to the Asplen: 
Filix Foemina. 
“ Blechnum spicant, name used by some writers for the boreale. 
“ Pistil, the fertile filament or little column in the interior of a 
flower or blossom. 
“ Pollen, the fecundating farina of a plant. 
“ Pubescent clothed with soft wood. 
* Silicious, composed of hair-like substance. 
“ Stamen, the barren filament or thread-like column in the interior 
of a flower or blossom. 
“ Stigma, the point of the pistil or fertile filament in the interior of 
a flower or blossom receiving the farina.” 
Many of our readers will perhaps be led to infer from some of these 
definitions, that the author intends the “ glossary ” as a general, not 
as a pteridological one: this we assure them is not the case. We will 
not enquire whence our author derives his profound erudition, but we 
are certain that he believes it explanatory of that restricted branch of 
Botany, of which his work professes to treat: such words for instance, 
as “corolla,” “ calyx,” “sepal,” “petal,” &c., do not occur in the 
glossary. 
Amongst other peculiarities, we are informed that Asplenium pal- 
matum, or the mule fern, by some called Scolopendrium Hemionitis, 
grows wild in Essex ; Woodsia Ilvensis is “ of no particular beauty 
or interest Pca ;” W. hyperborea is “ of a little more interest.” 
The genus Trichomanes is like the genus Hymenophyllum, “ only 
the leaves not prickly, wider, and more rounded.” Of Botrychium we 
have these particulars in the “ plain and easy account,” which we 
compare with those in the “complicate” ‘ Handbook :— 
