224 General Notes. 



July 1, 1905) for an extinct relative of the musk ox is preoccupied by 

 Scnphocera 1884, used by Saalmiiller for a genus of Lepidoptera (Lepid. v. 

 Madagascar, I, p. 181, May, 1884). I therefore propose in its stead Symbos, 

 a name suggested to me by Dr. Theo. Gill. The two species of this genus 

 will therefore stand as Symbos tyrdli and Symbos cavlfrons. Wilfred H. 

 Osgood. 



A NEW NAME FOR A MIDDLE AMERICAN FERN* 



In the first fascicle of Christensen's Index Filicum (1905), AcrosticJium 

 lom<irioides Jenman,a middle American species, is reduced to A. aurcum L., 

 supposed to be dispersed generally throughout the tropics. In first propos 

 ing lomarioides, Jenman suggested that A. aureum might prove an aggre 

 gate of several more or less closely related species ; and arguing from 

 analogous cases we judge this to be likely. But at present we are concerned 

 only with lomarioides, described at length by Jenman; this and aureum he 

 held to be as distinct as "any two closely allied species in any genus." 

 Several recent writers have not held to this opinion ; but from field observ 

 ation and the collection of adequate material we are quite convinced that 

 the two are, as Jenman has said, absolutely distinct, and we shall try to 

 prove this conclusively in a later paper. 



Jenman's use of lomarioides for an American plant is, however, inval 

 idated by the earlier application of the same name to an East Indian species, 

 by Bory. In its stead we propose, with the same type : 



Acrostichum excelsum nom. nov. 



Chrysodium lomarioides Jenman, Timehri 4 : 3L4. 1885. 

 Acrostichum lomarioides Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica. II. 5:154. 189S. 

 Not Bory, Belang. Voy. Bot. 2 : 21. pi. 2. 1838. 



The type of Jenman's species is from British Guiana, but the plant occurs 

 also in Jamaica, Porto Rico, Florida, Mexico, and Guatemala. William R. 

 Maxon. 



A NEW NAME FOR LEWIS' WOODPECKER. 



Picus torquatus Wilson, Am. Orn. Ill, 181 1 , 31, pi. xx, fig. 3, is preoccupied 

 by Picus torqualus Boddsert, Table PI. Enl. 1783, 52, No. 803, for a South Amer 

 ican woodpecker, Cerchneipic.us torquatus. Cones, Birds, N. VV. 1874, 291, 

 quotes in the synonomy of Asi/ndesmus torquatus, Picus lewisii. Drapiez 

 from Gray. Gray, Genera Birds, III, 1849, appendix, p. 22, writes it Pirn* 

 Lewis Drap. With the assistance of Messrs. J. A. G. Rehn and Glover M. 

 Allen, I have been unable to find that Drapiez ever proposed the above 

 name, but in the Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. XIII, 1828, 501, he gave as a ver 

 nacular heading " Pic Lewis," that probably gave rise to Gray's combination. 

 Picus montanus Ord, Guthrie's Geography, 2nd Am. Ed., 1815, 316, which 

 has been quoted as a synonym of Lewis' Woodpecker, belongs to 



*By permission. of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



