LOPHODIUM ULIGINOSUM. 165 



"4. Lastrea spinosa, a strong variety. 



" 5. Lastrea dilatata, a rigid variety. 



" 6. No way different from Lastrea spinosa, Newm., I mean, 

 it would hardly pass for a var. 



" It is singular that out of six high authorities no two enter- 

 tain the same opinion. The plant which has elicited such 

 conflicting opinions, has fronds resembling those received both 

 from Bawsey and Wybunbury, and therefore establishes the spe- 

 cific identity of those very dissimilar forms." — Phytol. iii. 678. 



The publication of this statement and description was imme- 

 diately followed by an advertisement of living plants being kept 

 for sale at the Bedford Conservatory, in Covent Garden, so 

 that every botanist who inclined might possess himself of mate- 

 rials on which to found a judgment on the merits of the species. 

 Numbers did so, and the result was the free and candid expres- 

 sion of opinions in the pages of the ' Phytologist.' These 

 opinions were, in almost every instance, very careful, very de- 

 liberate, and very decided ; either of them, insulated from the 

 others, exhibited such claims to adoption, that it must have 

 been accepted as final : but the aggregate of opinions led to no 

 such conclusion ; an eqiial number of botanists were in favour of 

 and against the adoption of uliginosum as a species, and to this 

 hour I have been unable to satisfy myself whether the argu- 

 ments pro or con were the more cogent. The reader is there- 

 fore referred to the ' Phytologist ' for the arguments themselves, 

 (see PhytoL iii. 678, 1087; iv. 22, 55, 72, 96, 105, 149, 476). 

 Our pubUshing botanists have also expressed their opinions re- 

 specting it : Babington makes it his Lastrea cristata, ^. ; and 

 Hooker and Arnott, who have given it marked attention, pro- 

 nounce it to be their Aspidium spinulosum, a. Mr. Babington 

 modestly observes that he is " very impei-fectly acquainted with 

 the plant." Before the separation of uliginosum as a species, 

 I expressed a strong opinion that spinosum and Callipteris 

 were extreme forms of one species : Mr. Hort, a very acute 

 botanist, has suggested their union. The following extract 

 from a letter to Mr. Watson is pubhshed in the ' Cj'bele Bri- 

 tannica ' : — " ' I cannot believe L. cristata to be more than a 

 state of L. spinosa. The general character and texture of both 

 agree together, and are quite unlike those of L. multiflora. 

 Those who have seen it growing speak of the plane of each 



