324 Mr. Ch. C. Babington on the correct Nomenclature of the 



afterwards given a name to one of them (but still anterior to the 

 publication of Rothes work) ought not to have his name super- 

 sededj because the artist employed on the ^ Fl. Dan/ was not of 

 a high order of merit, or because he was careless enough to ad- 

 mit the bad figure engraved on tab. 707. to be a representation 

 of his previously unnamed species, and took that opportunity of 

 conferring a name upon it. That Miiller did not confound his 

 own plant {Polyp, no. 841, Fl. Fridrich.) with the P. cristatum 

 (Linn.) will be seen by attending to an observation upon p. 195 

 of his 'Fl. Fridrich.'' which is as follows : "Tria Polypodia, no. 841, 

 844, 845, nullo modo cum Linnseanis descriptionibus aut aliorum 

 satis juste conciliare potui, hinc peritis descriptiones ac figurse 

 foliolorum traduntur.^^ Of these plants no. 841. is Polyp, spinu- 

 losum (MiiU.) ; no. 844. is Athyrium ovatum (Roth.), A. dentatum 

 (Hoffm.), which seems to form part of the A. molle of Newman ; 

 no. 845. is Polyst. multiflorum (Roth). Thus it appears that 

 Miiller had endeavoured to refer his plants to a Linnsean species, 

 but without success, and that succeeding botanists have con- 

 firmed their separation from the plants of Linnaeus. 



Having done my best to show that spinulosum is the earliest 

 specific name belonging to Polyst. spinosum of Roth (who indeed 

 quotes both the ' Fl. Fridrich.' and ' Fl. Dan.' in his 'Tent. Fl. 

 Germ.,' but, apparently by accident, does not notice the specific 

 name given in the latter, although he had previously quoted it in 

 his ' Catalecta,' pt. 1.), it is not necessary to waste space upon 

 an examination of later descriptions of plants so named, some of 

 which describe the indusium as having a fringe of stalked glands, 

 and therefore probably refer to the Polyst. multiflorum (Roth), 

 and others expressly notice its absence. I find no reference to 

 these glands in the original authorities for Polyp, spinulosum, and 

 do not think that there is any P. spinulosum which possesses 

 them, and at the same time is specifically distinct from P. mul- 

 tiflorum (Roth). I possess three continental specimens named 

 Asp. spinulosum, in neither of which are there stalked glands to 

 be found. Two of them are from Prussian Saxony, and the third 

 is from Bitche in Lorraine. There does not seem to be the slight- 

 est reason to doubt these specimens being Polyst. spinosum (Roth) 

 and Polyp, spinulosum (Miill.), and they tend to confirm the opi- 

 nion that the true Asp. spinulosum of Germany is the same as 

 our plant [Lastrcea spinosa, Newm.), and that it has not the 

 stalked glands on the edge of the indusium. 



The synonyms seem to be as follows : — 

 Polypodium, no. 841, MUll. Fl. Fridrich. 193. tab. 2. fig. 2. (1767). 

 Polyp, fihx-fcemina, y. spinosa, Weiss, PL Crypt. Fl. Gott. 316. 



(1770). 

 Polyp, spinulosum, MUll. Fl. Dan. 707. (text and probably figure,) 



