su. UNDERWOOD: OurR GENERA 
ment should mislead the uninformed, that it has hitherto been used 
mainly at Kew, where their idea of its type (Zunephrodium) is 
entirely outside the range of even the diverse contents which its 
founder included in it; it has never been in use on the continent 
to include our north temperate wood-ferns and never at all in 
America since its foundation. Dryopteris was taken up by Schott 
and later by Asa Gray in the first edition of his Manual, and its 
use by Americans for the past decade has been practically unques- 
tioned except by Mr. Davenport himself. 
Another genus adopted by Mr. Davenport for our ferns is 
Aspidium of Swartz, which, by a sleight-of-hand performance 
unknown to any other advocate of the idea of a specific type for 
a genus, he lodges with Aspidium trifoliatum (Polypodium trifolt- 
atum L.). Here again an insufficient examination of fern literature 
has placed him in a second error. We quote from a paper of 
Cavanilles published in 1799: 
‘*TECTARIA : Fructificacion en puntos redondos, esparcidos, situados en ]a supet- 
ficie posterior de la hoja. Zégumento umbilicado. Adertura casi circular. Exemplo 
de este género: Polypodium trifoliatum de Linneo.’”? Anales de Historia Natural, * 
eo 115.- D. F709. 
It will thus be seen that the plant called Aspidinm trifoliatum 
by Swartz is the monotype of Zectaria, which is a well-marked 
generic group as even Mr. Davenport is forced to admit. AS 
pidium, on the other hand, which he takes up for this species, was 
not proposed until 1801,+ when Swartz described it as follows: 
‘* AsPIDIUM. Cafsudae in puncta subrotunda sparsa digestae, /ndustis umbilicatls 
1. dimidiatis tectae.’’ Schrader’s Journal fiir die Botanik, 1800: 29. 1801. 
Then follow some seventy or more species which Swartz com- 
bined in this genus and which are now variously distributed among 
several genera. The first six mentioned are : 
1. A. articulatum = Oleandra articulata. 
2. A. pistillare = Oleandra neriiformis Cav. 
3. A. trifoliatum = Tectaria trifoliata. 
4. A. Lonchitis = Polystichum Lonchitis. 
2 
* At the time of the publication of my ‘‘ Genera of Ferns”? I had not seen this” 
rare series, of which a complete set containing a number of Cavanilles’ papers is now 
in the library of the New York Botanical Garden. ‘The above is therefore the cof 
rected date for 7ectarta and O/eandra as published in my earlier paper. 
+ Mr. Davenport appears to be in doubt about this date, but had he examin 
title page he would have found it perfectly clear. 
ed the 
