314 
HYMENOPHYLLACE^. 
readers all the information T can collect on the subject, and then 
allow them to draw their own conclusions. The first notice 1 find 
of the Glouin Caragh plant is by Mr. Mackay, at the December 
meeting of the Dublin Natural-History Society in 1842. “ Mr. 
Mackay, of the College Botanic Garden, in commenting on the 
beautiful specimens of Trichomanes exhibited by Mr. Andrews 
this evening, and on their finely developed state of fructification, 
observed that the first discovery of this rare and beautiful fern 
in Ireland was made by him in 1804, about which time he for- 
warded specimens to Sir Edward Smith, who figured it in the 
‘ English Botany,’ under the name of Hymenophyllwn alatum, 
from its winged stem. There was also exhibited before the 
meeting a true specimen of the Madeira plant, T. speciosum of 
Willdenow, which the late Right Hon. George Knox had brought 
to him in 1811 : this plant, in the short state of its receptacles, 
its triangular-shaped frond, and its densely tripinnate pinnae, 
was identical with the beautiful specimens in such fine fructifi- 
cation now before them of the T, hrevisetum of Killarney. The 
other specimens were those of a discovery made by Mr. Andrews 
this autumn, in a district remote from Killarney, and he con- 
fessed that he had never before seen such, either from their 
large size, or from the splendid state of fruit they exhibited. 
There was another peculiar, and, he considered, distinctive, fea- 
ture in the lanceolate form that all the fronds possessed, the bi- 
pinnate and not crowded state of the pinnge, and the still more 
remarkable character shown, that of the receptacles being five, 
and even six times longer than the indusia. These distinctions 
(from his own long experience and knowledge of these beautiful 
ferns, having succeeded for many years in cultivating them to 
perfection under glass in the conservatory), led him to state that 
he conceived the specimens produced by Mr. Andrews to be 
perfectly distinct from T, hrevisetum T 
The next notice I find on this subject is in the report of the 
late meeting of the British Association, held at Cork, in August, 
1843. It appears that Dr. Allman on this occasion exhibited 
specimens of the Glouin Caragh plant, calling attention to the 
characters already pointed out ; and that Mr. Mackay again 
expressed “ his conviction that it was a new species.” 
