I ^o 



of all studious plant lovers, would instead study the 

 varietal side of Fern life and thus reduce, instead of 

 increasing, the multitude of specific misnomers. In 

 particular connection with British Ferns, if we consult the 

 old authorities who, as we fully recognise, did yeoman 

 service in the old days, we scarcely find a name which has 

 survived in the accumulation of wider knowledge which 

 inevitably followed further research. Ferns submitted 

 independently to a dozen different botanists, to whom they 

 were possibly new, received as many different names based 

 on different points of view as regards specific or generic 

 characters. Some of these being regarded as best fitted 

 have survived, and are generally recognised, but un- 

 happily when we consult foreign literature relating to 

 identically the same plant, we find recognition is on 

 different lines from ours. Thus, in America our Lastreas 

 or Nephvoditims figure as Dvyoptevis^ and the Lady Fern 

 Athyviiim as Asplenkun, which is one of the most ridiculous 

 allocations possible, as it ignores all the specific 

 peculiarities of deciduousness, etc. in favour of a purely 

 fanciful resemblance in the sorus. To the allocation of 

 our Blechmim spicant to the Lomavia genus, by our Kew 

 Authorities, we have alluded frequently, but it appears to 

 be nobody's business to make corrections of this kind, 

 even when these identical authorities have determined the 

 difference between the genera and can satisfy themselves 

 of the error by a moment's investigation of material in their 

 charge. 



Chas. T. Druery, V.r^I.H., b\L.S. 



