378 SOME CRYPTOGAMIC NOTES, 



access to Adanson's original description, but, judging from C 

 Christensen's " Enumeratio,"* his Dryopteris consisted of 

 aspidioid ferns with free veins ; i.e., it was the equivalent of 

 Presl's ^'■Lastrcea " (1836). In recent times, Dryopteris has been 

 used in at least two, different senses. On the one hand, it has 

 been made to cover all the oakleaf-like ferns, whether indusiate 

 or exindusiate; and, on the other hand, it has been limited to 

 the indusiate ferns alone of this class. Tn the former case, 

 the indusiate species have received the subgeneric name Eudry- 

 opteris, while the exindusiate species have constituted the sub- 

 genus Phegopteris. Where, on the other hand, Dryoj^teris has 

 been limited to the indusiate species, Phegopteris has been made 

 a separate genus. 



The wider signification of Dryopteris has been adopted bj' 

 Christensen (ojo. ci^.), and K. Domin.f, Capt. van Aldewerelt 

 van Rosenbergl has divided all the Polypodiacece into the " In- 

 dusiatse" and the " Exindusiatee" ; and has, therefore, separated 

 Phegopteris from Dryopteris, placing it in a new tribe, Pheyo- 

 pteridece. Domin, with justice, calls Van Rosenberg's scheme in 

 question^; but in following Christensen and making Phegopteris 

 a subgenus of Dryopteris, Domin is in danger of seeming to 

 support a classification that includes exindusiate ferns under the 

 Aspidiece; to my mind, an undesirable arrangement, and indeed 

 a conti'adiction in terms. 



It is only fair to Domin to state that he avoids this situation 

 by carefully refraining from any use of tribal divisions under 

 the Polypodiacece, a procedure, however, that is scarcely to be 

 followed in dealing with a family that includes the great bulk 

 of the ferns of the world. 



To avoid, (a), the unscientific separation of Phegopteris from 

 the vicinity of Dryopteris, (b), the inclusion of exindusiate ferns 



* Index Filieum, 1906, p. xxi. 



t Pteridophyta. 

 J Malayan Ferns, 1908. 

 § Van Rosenberg liiniself (op. cit., p. 486) says, in a note on Phegopteria, 

 " Its proper place is near Dryojiteris, from which it differs by the wanting 

 indusiura only."' 



