370 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



Linn6 probably included both forms in his Pohjpndium cris- 

 tatum. Spinulosum appears to have been the first which was 

 separated thus giving the name priority, but Miiller's views of 

 the allied forms was somewhat confused ; he makes no mention of 

 the Linnean cristatum and misunderstands P. Dryopterls. 

 Hoffman was the first to characterize the form dilatatum, but he 

 made two species out of it and appHed the Linnean name cristatum 

 to Miiller's spinulosum. Then comes Roth, who is the first to 

 make one species of the two forms, his name is multiflorum and 

 spinulorum is reduced to a variety under Weiss's name spinosa ; 

 somewhat later, when Roth founded his genus Polystichum, he 

 changed his mind and made a species of each form, without alter- 

 ing his names. Swartz copied Roth throughout, borrowed his 

 genus, calling it Aspidium, and copied him in making the plants 

 in question first one species and then two. Botanists do wrong to 

 ignore Roth ; his genus has undoubted priority, and his cor- 

 rect views of the plants in question give his names good claims to 

 be continued. His view of the identity of the two forms has 

 been followed by most modern authors ; many able botanists 

 (Mettenius, etc.), however, hold them to be distinct. The changes 

 liave been so often rung that the question of priority of name 

 has become somewhat complicated ; there is, however, no doubt 

 whatever that Gray's name was applied by Horoemann to the 

 A. dilatatum of Swartz and Wildenow as long ago as 1829 ; that 

 Hooker applied it to the British form in 1830. and to the Amer- 

 ican form in 1840 ; while Dr Gray's publication is 1856. The 

 literature to which 1 have access is of course limited, else the list of 

 synonyms would have been very much longer ; and the matter, in 

 itself trifling, is alluded to, only because of its connection with the 

 important subject of correct botanical nommalcture, which is 

 presently being discussed. 



Botany of the West Coast of North America. — 

 The following general account of the botany of the region west 

 of the Cascade Mountains, from Puget Sound southward as far as 

 Tillamook Bay, given by Prof. I. W. Marsh, of Pacific College, 

 Forest Grove, Oregon, in a letter to a friend in this city, has 

 been furnished to us for publication : 



" The trees which are most conspicuous, and which cover far 

 the larger part of the country, are conifers. The Douglas spruce 



