THE amp:ricax botanist. 117 



Some gift for each one ot the family. The\' are already 

 raivSed at a profit by nurserymen. 



But the attitude of the sentimentalists who would cut 

 no tree, even for Christmas purposes is equall3^ mistaken. 

 Such persons are a serious hindrance to the progress of 

 real forestry for they antagonize the very men the}" would 

 like to convert. Let every home that needs a Christmas 

 tree have one bj' all means for this legitimate use, but cry 

 down indiscriminate cutting and waste in the woodlands, 

 and prepare for 1914, if you are in a position to do so, by 

 planting a few spruces or firs. 



DODGE'S FERN. 



The person who is continually using scientific names 

 and who understands their meaning, is apt to decry the 

 use of "popular" names for plants ; and indeed it is a ques- 

 if the amateur who uses them is not robbing himself, lor 

 he will often find plants that have no common names and 

 he will be unable to speak of them intelligentl}'. There is 

 no good reason vvh}- the Latin names of ferns should not 

 become as "popular" as Dahlia, Fuchsia and hosts of 

 others that are in every day use. The writer of popular 

 ])Ooks is often hard pressed to supply this demand for 

 "easy" names, and frequently complies by coining a word. 

 An instance of this is seen in a recent work on ferns where 

 Nephrodhim shnulatum Dav. is spoken of as the "Massa- 

 chusetts fern." It strikes me this name is particularly un- 

 fortunate; first, because it was not discovered in Massa- 

 chusetts, but at Seabrook, N. H. ; secondly, it was 

 brought to notice, as was the In^brid shield-fern, by Ray- 

 nal Dodge, a close student of New England fern life, com- 

 piler of a manual of our New England Pteridophytes, and 

 a good collector and observer, a man who has added much 

 to our knowledge of plants in the little time allowed from 

 the busy life of a machinist, and it should rightly bear his 

 name. It is to be hoped that in future this will be spoken 

 of not as the"Alassachusetts," but as "Dodge's" fern. — .4. 

 A. Eaton, Ames Botanical Laboratory, N. Easton, Mass. 



