TRICHOMANES EADICANS. 285 



of Swartz, and finding Swartz's description sufficiently well 

 agree with my plant, suggested the adoption of the earlier 

 name. I was, however, deterred from publishing this view by 

 an examination of fronds labelled T. radicans, but without any 

 locality attached, which were said to be authentic, and which 

 being narrow, strap-shaped, sparingly divided, and perfectly 

 sessile, certainly could not be specifically associated with the 

 Irish plant. Long subsequently. Sir William Hooker entered 

 on the same investigation, and seems to have been quite una- 

 ware of what had previously been done, and of the fact that 

 every botanist in the United Kingdom, excepting himself, had 

 accepted my view of uniting the Irish with the Madeira plant, 

 and of adopting the earlier name of sjaeciosum for both. 

 Guided therefore by the results of a perfectly independent re- 

 search, and assisted by the possession of a matchless series of 

 specimens, Sir William arrived at the conclusion that our Bri- 

 tish fern was identical, not only with the speciosum of Madeira, 

 but with the radicans of Jamaica. This decision, like my prior 

 one, has been generally adopted ; and, not desiring again to 

 moot the question, I have reverted to my original proposition 

 of calling our fern Trichomanes radicans. 



This beautiful fern is said to occur in North, Central, and 

 South America, and the West India Islands, abundantly in 

 the islands of the Atlantic, and among the mountains of Nepal 

 in Asia ; but there is no record of its having been found in 

 continental Europe, or Africa. 



In the British Islands it is confined to three Irish counties. 

 The record of its discovery in Yorkshire a hundred and fifty 

 years ago, is beset with many doubts and difficulties that cannot 

 now be solved. 



Cork. — Mr. R. Ball informs me that he fomnd this fern in luxuriant 

 profusion in Glendiue, near Youghal. It was found in 1841, by Mr. 

 James A. Fisher, in Glenbour, KOleagh, also near the town of Youghal ; 

 it was growing in a cave, and in considerable abundance, Mr. Fisher hav- 

 ing supplied several botanists with whom I correspond ; but when he again 

 visited the cave, he found that a fire had been Idndled immediately under 



