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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
He warned collectors not to suppose that because they had got a lovely little 
fern, it must needs be one of the gems of the fernery, for if placed there, in 
a short time it would in all likelihood overshadow everything else. Specimens 
of Polypodivm phegopteris being handed up, the lecturer remarked that this 
plant was often supposed, from its name of Beech-fern, to be a lover of beechen 
woods, just as the P. dryopteris , or Oalc-fem, is commonly supposed to be so 
called by reason of a preference for the shade of oak-trees. Both ideas are 
mistaken ones. The ferns are respectively named after the two trees because 
in profile or general outline the individual fronds bear a striking resemblance 
to the profiles of the beech and oak ; so that in those landscape pictures 
which are often prepared by gumming down mosses, lichens, and ferns, in 
such a way as to resemble forests and other elements of rural views, these two, 
the Phegopteris and the Dryopteris, become striking and ready-made draw- 
ings of the respective trees. In the living state, the resemblance of the 
Dryopteris to the oak-tree is somewhat impaired by the deflexion of the central 
branch, but this is no longer perceived when the frond is laid flat. The Wild 
Raspberry was the next plant noticed. Mr. Grindon commented on the in- 
teresting fact that it was probably the only one of our native fruits which in 
the wild condition has often as good a taste as when cultivated. The apple 
begins in the crab, the plum begins in the sloe, the cherry in an austere and 
almost juiceless globule, not larger than a pea ; but the raspberry is a rasp- 
berry from the commencement. In the woods and doughs of South Lanca- 
shire it is exceedingly abundant, and large quantities of excellent fruit could 
be collected where the raids of town lads allowed it to ripen. Near Bristol 
the raspberry is a rare plant ; and while walking once in the forest of Meudon, 
near Paris, the lecturer said he was again struck by the absence of it, made 
noticeable by the profusion of the wild red-currant, by which the old accustomed 
fruit was superseded. Describing the Circcea, or Enchanter’s Nightshade, and 
some other plants with names suggestive of classic story, the lecturer pointed 
out the great variety in the pleasures opened up to all intellects by the study 
of botany, which was not to be deemed the art. of flower-slaughter and ex- 
cruciating nomenclature, but rather as the “ Gate Beautiful ” both into 
Nature and into very much of the best portion of poetry, literature, and 
mythology. 
Various specimens, gathered by different members, being placed in Mr. 
Grindon’s hands to be named and described, the lecturer spoke after the same 
manner respecting the Wild Heath, dwelling especially on a branch of the 
common heather, or Calluna vulgaris, a plant loving great solitudes. He 
called attention to the vast number of individual blossoms that were crowded 
together into the small space it offered, and to the pretty arrangement of the 
minute leaves, which were disposed in such a way as to remind us of some 
of the patterns of ornamental gold neck-chains. Nothing in art, he said, 
was absolutely new. However simple, however ingenious or seemingly 
original, so long as the forms and proportions commended themselves to our 
perceptions as beautiful and symmetrical, they were always to be found 
somewhere in nature, which was the storehouse at once of all great ideas and 
of all choice imagery and designs. Further to illustrate this, the lecturer 
cited the case of the common Ox-eye Daisy, the centre of which prefigures the 
crossing curves on the back of an “ engine-turned ” watch-cover. The same 
