624 UnpDERWooD: THE GENUS GYMNOGRAMME 
7. G. LEPTOPHYLLA ( Polypodium leptophyllum L. ). 
Sec. 4. Frondibus tripinnatifidis. 
8. G. CHAEROPHYLLA Desv. 
9. G. TARTAREA (Acrostichum tartareum Cav., Hemionitis dealbata Willd. ). 
10. G, SULPHUREA (Acrostichum sulphureum Sw.). 
II. G. AUREA ( Hemionitis aurea Willd. ). 
Sec. 5. Frondibus decompositis. 
12. G. ROSEA ( Hemionitis argentea Willd.). 
13. G, FLExUOSA Desv. 
It thus contains representatives of six or more genera as now 
understood, and the species were arranged, as was common during 
the first quarter of the last century, in the inverse order of com- 
plexity of leaf division. The first species mentioned under Gym- 
nogramma was Pteris ruffa \.., which thirteen years earlier had 
stood as the sole type of the genus Gymuopteris established by 
Bernhardi.* The latter name must therefore stand for the group 
which contains its monotype in spite of the fact that various bot- 
anists, including Diels, who wrote the Polypodiaceae for Die na- 
tirlichen Phlanzenfamilien, have used Gymnopteris for an entirely 
different group of plants. Whether the name Gymnogramma must 
pass forever into synonymy or be applied to some of the other spe- 
cies it originally contained, will be dependent on the final settlement 
of the question of generic types. And not only this, but the settle- 
ment of this problem will also affect all the generic groups later 
established on any of the species involved in the original Gymne- 
gramma, There can never be generic stability until this problem 
is eternally settled, and the only ground on which it ever can be 
_ * As Bernhardi’s genus is cited as late as 1875 by no less an authority on — 
than John Smith himself (Historia Filicum, p, 138) as ‘+ founded by Bernhardi in 1800, 
on the Acrostichum quercifulium of Retzius’’ it is desirable to know exactly _ 
Bernhardi did in Jour. fiir die Botanik, 1799: 297. 1799 (not 1800: 121, a5 cited 
by Pfeiffer!). His genus Gymnopteris is no. 3 and is placed under ‘‘ /. Sporangus 
gyro instructis’? and under “A. Nudis,’’ as follows : 
“<3. GYMNOPTERIS. Sforangia pedicellata lineatim aggregata. 
tichium rufum L.”’ i 
It was not till 1806 that Bernhardi (Neues Journal fiir die Botanik, 17 + 20) Sites 
anew account of Gymmopteris under which he cites two species by name “ ape 
discolor (Osmunda Forst.)’? and ‘** * * quercifolia (Acrostichum Retz. )’ among 
numerous other groups which he denominates as ‘‘familiae’’ under the genus- 
The only safety in accurate systematic work is to consult the original paper? on 
genera and species are described. _ We cannot depend on many of the traditional ide 
based on ancient and hurried examination of original descriptions without a new Ver" 
E. g-» Acros- 
