3« 



varietal counterparts to prove our case. None the less, we 

 have no doubt whatever that the Polypodiuin genus will 

 continue to be swollen by these varietal forms of one and 

 the same species, since all attempts to remove such anoma- 

 lies from scientific botanical records are usually if not 

 invariably vain, because the varietal expert is regarded as a 

 mere amateur for the reasons mentioned above. 



We have one glaring instance of this adherence to wrong 

 names in our common Hard Fern, Blechmim spicant, 

 which in the Kew List, and consequently in most scientific 

 publications, is called Lomavia spicant, although in the self- 

 same literature on Ferns, which is recognized by these high 

 authorities, the marked and well-defined difference between 

 the two genera is not only described but illustrated, so that 

 it is only necessary to collect a fertile frond of each genus 

 to note the distingviishing character of the fructification 

 upon the form of which Fern classification is based. In 

 both genera the fertile fronds are distinguished from the 

 barren ones by being erect and contracted instead of more 

 or less lax and wide. The Blcchnum spore heaps, how- 

 ever, lie within the margin of the contracted frond, and 

 between this margin and the sorus or spore heap there is 

 a distinct membraneous cover or indusium. The 

 Lomavia, on the other hand, has its spore heaps at the 

 margin, and it is the margin itself which turns backward to 

 act as an indusium, a distinction quite clear to the naked 

 eye in both cases. This distinction determines even the 

 varietal capacity, since we have a not very rare form of 

 B. spicant {B. s. anomahun) in which the fertile fronds are as 

 wide as the barren ones and bear the spore heaps in the 

 middle next the midrib and far away from the margin, an 

 obvious impossibility in a Lomavia. None the less, 

 repeated protests fail to obtain botanical recognition of the 

 error, and Lomavia still figures in official literature and on 

 official labels as the botanical name of the Hard Fern. 

 This should not be ; any clearly demonstrable error of this 

 kind should at once be corrected by the authorities who 



