8 POLYPODIACE^ OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



I am not personall}^ acquainted with a large part of those ferns 

 still known here only from earlier collections and have compiled 

 their descriptions from various sources', especially from the Synopsis 

 Filicum. Of the collections most frequently cited, those of Cuming, 

 Baranda, Steere, Warburg, and Loher are given on the authority of 

 other botanists; while I have at my disposition the collections of 

 Merrill, Elmer, Whitford, Barnes, other collectors employed by the 

 Bureau of Forestry and the Exposition Board, and my own. 



Ferns have been among the plants most ill favored by the imposi- 

 tion of plural names, and therefore, in these days of chaos in nomen- 

 clature, they present the best of material for jugglery. Not caring 

 to take any part in the strife between the advocates of the different 

 "rules" of nomenclature, I have made it my chief principle to form 

 no new combination of names for any plant which already had, in 

 its proper genus, a name valid under any rules. Pending a gen- 

 eral agreement among competent botanists, it seems to me that 

 current usage should be the chief criterion in deciding a choice 

 between names. Because their adoption would have compelled me 

 to make new combinations for many species, rather than from any 

 preference for these generic names themselves, I have retained the 

 ones in common use, rather than those taken up by Underwood, for 

 Gymnopteris, Nephrodium, HymenoUpis, and Niphoholus. Chiefly 

 for the same reason, but in part too because I can not see that the 

 multiplication of genera adds a particle to the naturalness of the 

 presentation, I have maintained as very large genera Nephrodium, 

 Aspidium, Asplenium, and Poly podium. 



It may not be superfluous to add that this Bureau will be very 

 glad to undertake the determination of any ferns which may be sent 

 to it. It is to encourage the interest in our ferns, and in response 

 to very numerous requests for a guide in the determination of the 

 local plants that this paper, our first systematic treatment of any 

 part of the Philippine flora, is published. I take the liberty of 

 copying literally, from Professor Underwood's already mentioned 

 paper, the following directions for the profitable collection of fern 

 specimens : 



(1) In all ferns not over 2 feet high an entire plant should be secured, 

 but in plants growing in dense crowns the rootstock may well be split 

 lengthwise and several of the leaves removed before drying. 



(2) In all ferns not over 4 feet high an entire leaf should be secured 

 if possible attached to the rootstock or to some portion of it. In case of 



