INTRODUCTION, Q1 
make their appearance: but the earliest leaves of a 
fern are altogether unlike those which it finally 
_ assumes; they are very small, flat, olive-coloured and 
seale-like; and these are produced in such multi- 
tudes that scarcely one out of every thousand has 
any chance of arriving at maturity. 
There is, and always will be, a great difficulty 
thrown in the path of the learner by the introduction 
of new names: this practice is not confined to thé 
juvenile scribblers who are inditing their first pub- 
lication, but may be traced backwards to old and 
most respected authorities: it is a sort of mono- 
mania with scientific writers; thus even in Sir J. E, 
Smith’s ‘English Flora,’ spicant of Linneus is 
changed into boreale; robertianum of Hoffmann is 
changed into calcarewm; alpinum of Bolton is 
changed into hyperborea; aculeatum of Linneus is 
changed into lobatum; montanum of Vogler is 
_ changed into Oreopteris; germanicum of Weiss is 
changed into alternifolium; Scolopendrium of Lin- 
_neus is changed into vulgare; speciosum of Will- 
denow is changed into brevisetum; and so on. Now 
_ mot one of these changes arises from ignorance or 
