66 smith's feen. 



their respective characters remain unchanged." In letters 

 from the Eev. Mr. Bree, and the late Mr. Cameron of Birming- 

 ham, opinions very similar to those now quoted are expressed, 

 both these excellent botanists regarding G. Eobertianum as a 

 truly distinct species. It must however be observed that Sad- 

 ler, in his treatise on the ferns of Hungary, admits this species 

 with doubt, while the learned authors of the 'Flore Fran- 

 goise ' ignore it altogether, although of common occurrence in 

 France ; and Ledebour, in his ' Flora Eossica,' although weU 

 acquainted with it, advisedly unites it with Dryopteris. Origi- 

 nally I entertained a similar opinion, an opinion which careful 

 observation of the plant under cultivation has induced me to 

 abandon. 



With regard to the specific name, I seem to have no choice 

 but to adopt the earlier one, although our most distinguished 

 English botanists, Hooker, Watson, and Babington, have advi- 

 sedly selected the later. For every change of specific name, 

 some sufficient reason ought to be assigned ; yet neither Sir J. 

 E. Smith, Sir W. J. Hooker, Mr. Watson, nor Mr. Babington, 

 has given the least explanation of the change, although no one 

 will presume to su^Dpose either of these truly illustrious authors 

 ignorant of Hoffmann's prior description. 



My friend, Bory de St. Vincent, made this species a Lastrea 

 in 1824, an arrangement which I adopted in 1844 ; but, not 

 satisfied of its affinity with Bory's type-species, Oreopteris, I 

 have ventured to place it under my new genus, Gymnocarpium, 

 as abeady explained. 



The figure of Dryopteris Tragi in Gerarde (Em. 1135), co- 

 pied and reversed by the author of the ' British Herbal ' (p. 

 48), without any acknowledgment, admirably represents this 

 species, but there is nothing, either in the original or quoted de- 

 scription, that applies exclusively to Eobertianum ; on the con- 

 trary, it is most manifest that Dryopteris is also included : the 

 information that "it is oftentimes found in sunny places; " that 

 it grows "upon heaps of rubbish," &c., mingled, as it is, with 

 much irrelevant matter, indicates the fusion of this sj)ecies with 

 the more common Drj'opteris. There is a tolerably character- 

 istic figure in Bolton's ' Filices ' (tab. 1, fig. 1) under the name 

 of Polypodium Dryopteris, and also in 'English Botany' (1525), 

 the latter under the name of P. calcareum; but the very elegant 



