230 
ASPIDIACE/E. 
in determining the variety, as I have never seen it without the 
pinnules being more or less concave.” 
In consequence of this information I altered the passage when 
I reprinted my ^ Notes on Irish Natural History,’ as follows : — 
“ The third [form of dilatatum] is the Aspidium dumetorum 
of Smith and Mackay, the Asp. dilatatum var. concavum of 
Babington, the Asp. dilatatum recurvum of Bree, and the Asp. 
spinidosum of the Botanic Garden at Belfast, &c. This form 
is far more distinct and constant than any other with which I 
am acquainted.” ^ 
These views were repeated in the first edition of the ‘ History 
of British Ferns.’ 
The Rev. W. T. Bree, in a late communication to ‘ The Phy- 
tologist,’ claims for this fern the rank of a species, I shall quote 
the entire passage. 
The announcement of a new edition of your ^ British Ferns ’ 
induces me to trouble you wfith a remark, for which you may 
perhaps find room in ‘ The Phytologist.’ In the 4th vol. of the 
‘Magazine of Natural History,’ under the head of ‘List of Rare 
Plants found in the neighbourhood of Penzance’ (p. 162), I men- 
tioned, among other things, Aspidium dilatatum, var. recurvum, 
not knowing how else to designate what I believed to be an un- 
described British fern ; and in a note at the foot of the page I 
expressed an opinion to that effect. Since the publication of 
that list, the fern has been noticed by several botanists, and re- 
corded by yourself as a variety of dilatatum. I am perfectly 
aware that dilatatum is a most variable species, assuming as it 
does very different appearances according to soil, situation, 
shade, moisture, &c. Recurvum is equally given (if I may so 
say) to “ ring the changes ” on variety, but to a practised eye it 
is, in all its forms, readily distinguishable from every form of 
dilatatum. And I now beg to say, that after close observa- 
tion of the fern in the neighbourhood of Penzance, in the 
year 1817, and on the Irish mountains some years previously, as 
well as from an intimate acquaintance with the plant in a culti- 
vated state from that time to the present, I am confirmed in my 
* Notes on Irish Natural History, 4. 
