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BRITISH FERN NOMENCLATURE.^^ 



As the hoa. secretary of the British Pteridological 

 Society, to which reference is made in your leader of August 

 24th (the annual report of which appears on p. 657 of the 

 same issue), I venture to solicit a little space for a reply to 

 the very kindly and sympathetic remarks and suggestions 

 made in the above connection. I also avail myself of this 

 opportunity of thanking the Gardeners' Magazine for the 

 support to the cult which it has given for the past quarter 

 of a century at least, and to my efforts to restore to our 

 beautiful native ferns the popularity which it is now gener- 

 ally recognised they so fully merit. I cannot but agree 

 that the names given are in many cases very long ones, 

 but it must be conceded that if a descriptive name can be 

 given to a plant, it must perforce be better than a purely 

 fanciful one, which conveys nothing at all without the 

 aid of the description which accompanies it in the florist's 

 catalogue. 



Taking the daffodil as the example quoted, though 

 numberless flowers are so varied as to render this example 

 one of a legion, I would point out that there is little or no 

 parallel between the cases. With a flower which, by 

 virtue of selection, crossing; or hybridising, yields 

 eventually hundreds of varieties, characterised by often 

 small differences of form, tint, and size, which it is im- 

 possible to define beyond a certain limit, fancy names, 

 personal, local, or other, must inevitably be adopted, but 

 with our native ferns it must be remembered that they 

 stand alone in the fact that all the varieties have originated 

 from wild sports, which at the time of their discovery, were 

 certainly entitled to be descriptively named on botanical 

 lines, and being referred to the botanist or fern experts of 

 the time, were treated accordingly. It is due to this that 

 we inherit, as it were, varietal names thus given to the 



'•' By favour of the Gardeners' Magazine, in reply to a leader depre- 

 cating the use of the long names in vogue. 



