302 88. PTERIDIOIDES. 



transferred from the Pliytologist to the History, where the 

 Author constituted himself the advocate against me, and 

 stated the case considerably different from the terms in 

 which it would have been stated by myself. He there 

 represents himself to have said that the plant was " gene- 

 rally " [no such term of qualification was used originally] 

 found in places unconnected with water, and he quotes 

 only that portion of my paragraph in correction, which 

 mentions having seen it in water and mud, omitting the 

 coincident statement that I had seen it in corn-fields, &c. 

 Thus, to readers of the History, it appears that Mr. New- 

 man had originally described the species as gi'owing in 

 dry or other places, and that I had then contradicted hini, 

 by limiting the species to water, or something very like 

 this. By this wrong mode of putting the case, any re- 

 cord of a station in dvj or merely damp ground was 

 made to appear a fact subversive of my supposed state- 

 ment ; and such records are accordingly quoted from 

 the pens of some insignificant botanists. The fact is, I 

 corrected the original remark of Mr. Newman only in part 

 [" partial inaccuracy "] and in so far as it implied the wo >i- 

 occurrence of the plant in or by water. After quoting the 

 reports of other persons, the Author of the History pro- 

 ceeds to say, " The more closely I investigate the subject 

 the more do I feel strengthened in my original view of the 

 case, confessing, however, that my means of judging are 

 confined to two or three localities," &c. Now, be it kept 

 in memory, that Mr. Newman's original \iew fZis-connected 

 the plant from water, without any exception expressed. 

 But this able Pteridologist, having very highly compli- 

 mented the writings of Dr. Bromfield, as published in the 

 Pliytologist, cannot consistently refuse his evidence. Dr. 

 Bromfield was perfectly aware of the discussion that had 

 arisen on the subject, at the time when he penned for the 



