LOPHODIUM FCENISECII. 137 



?? Aspidium dumetorum, Sm. E. F. iv. 294, 1828. (The 

 reference is suggested by the synonymes and localities). 



Nephrodium foenisecii, Loive, Camb. Phil. Trans, iv. 7. 1832. 



Aspidium dilatatum, var. recurvum, Bree, Mag, Nat. Hist. 

 iv. 162. 1831. 



Aspiditim recurvum, Bree, Phytol. i. 773. 1843. 



Lastrea recurva, Neicm. N. A. 23, F. 225. 1844. 



Lastrea foenisecii, JFafeon, P/ij/toL ii. 668. 1846. TJat. 411. 

 1851. Moore, 132, (excl. the figure). 1853. 



Aspidium spinulosum, y. Hook, and Am. 571. 1850. 



Lophodium recurvum, Newm. Phytol. iv. 371. 1851. 



Lophodium foenisecii, Newm. Phytol. App. xvi. 1851. 



Tlie figure in Plukenet is very good, so far as outline and 

 division are concerned, but the convexity of the major, and the 

 concavity of the minor divisions, is of necessity omitted. 



The earliest notices of this fern are in Eay's ' Synopsis,' before 

 quoted (p. 100 of this work), and in Plukenet's ' Almagestum,' 

 also cited. An interesting addition to Ray's original descrip- 

 tion appears in the 3rd edition of the ' Synopsis,' as follows : — 

 " Viviradices prope Phainon Vellon quondam eradicavi, quffi 

 jam in horto nostro vigent. Loco natali planta est admodum 

 rara ; Dr. Richardson." Sir J. E. Smith assigns both Eay's 

 and Plukenet's synonymes to his Aspidium dumetorum, but 

 neither his description, nor his specimens now in the herba- 

 rium of the Linnean Society, at aU bear out this view. In 1831 

 the Eev. W. T. Bree described the plant in Loudon's ' Maga- 

 zine of Natural History,' as Aspidium dilatatum, var. recurvum. 

 Subsequently, in 1832, the Eev. Mr. Lowe described the species 

 in the Cambridge ' Philosophical Transactions,' as an inhabi- 

 tant of Madeira, under the name of Nephrodium fosnisecii : 

 and in 1843, Mr. Bree expressed his opinion in the ' Phytolo- 

 gist ' that it was a distinct species, and proposed to call it As- 

 pidium recurvum. In 1841, it was described as Lastrea recurva 

 in the ' British Ferns.' In 1846, Mr. Watson pointed out to 

 me that the foenisecii of Lowe and the recurva of Bree are iden- 

 tical ; and in the ' Phytologist ' for the same year, that emment 

 botanist named the plant Lastrea foenisecii. In 1850, the 

 learned authors of the ' British Flora/ in a long and elaborate 

 foot-note to their Aspidium spinulosum, assign their reasons 

 for considering this fern a form of that sjiecies. In 1861, I 



T 



