REVIEWS. 
115 
works on the subject have lately made their appearance, yet we think this 
one entitled to become the text-book with botanists, and a fit com¬ 
panion for the other works on British Natural History, as one of a series 
of which it is published. In all but name this work is a Monograph; and 
though future investigators may, and, doubtless, will discover some new 
things, yet, up to the present moment, all that can be said in elucidation 
of these objects is said; and patient research into works of other ages, has 
opened to us all that our ancestors—those fathers of Natural History— 
thought and wrote upon them. The labour and research exhibited in these 
pages in distinguishing species deserves our warmest praise, which, we are 
sure, will not be denied by any Pteridologist, who knows the perplexity 
caused by the various abnormal forms in ferns, and by the number of 
varieties falsely elevated to the rank of species. In the year 1690, the 
the author of the “ Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation,” 
published his “ Synopsis Methodica. Stirpium Britannicarum,” a work 
characterized by one of our most competent judges, Sir J. E. Smith, as one 
of the most perfect, systematical, and practical floras of any country. This 
synopsis contained forty-eight species of ferns, or less by two than the 
number recorded in the work before us, as being strictly British ; of this 
number twelve are omitted as being varieties. The next addition will be 
found in the English Flora, by Sir J. E. Smith, who adds nine, of which 
six are rejected in the present work—four, Aspidium spinulosum, A. 
dumetorum, A. irriguum, and Cystopteris dentata, as having no claim 
whatever to be mentioned even as varieties; two, Cystopteris regia and 
Asplenium fontanum, as having been only found on stone walls; two 
additions are given by Sir W. Hooker, in his British Flora, Aspidium 
(Lophodium) rigidum, and Hymenophyllum Wilsonii (unilaterale), which 
are retained under new titles ; and, at sundry times, and in various edi¬ 
tions of his British Ferns, Mr. Newman has added nine species—thus making 
the number of species of ferns found in Britain to be fifty. 
These fifty are arranged by Mr. Newman into three grades—first, those 
concerning whose identity there can be no doubt; secondly, the following 
four—Woodsia alpina, Cystopteris Dickieana, Ophioglossum lusitanicum, 
and Hymenophyllum unilaterale, which, though inserted in his pages as 
established species, still we find botanists, of acknowledged ability, doubtful 
as to whether they may not be varieties of kindred species; and, 
thirdly, Asplenium acutum, Polystichum angulare, Lophodium collinum, 
Amesium germanicum, Lophodium glandulosum, Lophodium uliginosum, 
Botrychium rutaceum. The claims of these latter to be species the reader 
will find fully entertained in these pages, under their respective titles. 
