VoL. 29 No. Il 
BULLE TIM 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
NOVEMBER, 1902 
American Ferns—IV, The Genus Gymnogramme of the 
Synopsis Filicum 
By Lucien Marcus UNDERWOOD 
3 For too long a period the study of systematic botany in Am- 
erica was in a more or less servile condition dominated by English 
€as emanating mainly from Kew. A quarter of a century ago 
sa Gray stood practically alone in the study of the higher flora 
America. Bentham and Hooker’s masterpiece, then about com- 
eted, was taken as authoritative, and the Kew rules dominated 
€very action where personal preference did not supersede all rules. 
little before this time had come the culmination of the work of 
a lifetime on the systematic study of ferns which was destined to 
€xert a more wide-spread influence than Kew had exerted among 
€ higher plants even. The Species Filicum of the elder Hooker 
Which had followed the earlier publications of that distinguished 
man while he was associated with his still more acute compeer, 
Gr ville, had represented a lifetime of study on one of the largest 
$0) fections of ferns that had ever been brought together, and was 
mpleted in 1864. The notes and corrections to this series. 
during the twenty years of publication had been incorpor- 
in Hooker’s own copy of the work, and he had commenced to: 
out a revision in abridgement under the now familiar title of 
S psis Filicum, when his career was somewhat suddenly termi- 
ed by death. John Gilbert Baker, who afterwards became for 
Y years the keeper of Kew herbarium, was entrusted to push 
revision to a close, the first edition appearing in 1868, and 
second with an extensive appendix in 1874. This work with 
ple references to the more complete Species Filicum has had 
markable and world-wide influence, and being the only general 
[Issued 28 November] 4617 
