Notes on the genus Herberta. with a revision of the species known 
from Europe, Canada and the United States* 
ALEXANDER W. Evans 
(WITH PLATE 8 AND 20 TEXT FIGURES) 
INTRODUCTION 
The genus Herberta (or Herbertus, as it was originally spelled) 
was published by S. F. Gray in 1821. It was named in honor of 
George Herbert, one of the patrons of Micheli, and was based on 
a single species, the Jungermannia adunca of Dickson. In common 
with Gray’s other genera, Herberta was ignored by botanical writers 
until Carruthers called: attention to it in 1865.t Although it has 
since been accepted more or less widely in both Europe and 
North America, a strong tendency has recently arisen to re- 
pudiate it. This is largely due to Gray’s unfortunate practice of 
giving his generic names a masculine termination, even when he 
derived them from the names of persons. As Dumortier expresses 
it, they are the names of men and not of plants. Since, however, 
a change from a masculine to a feminine termination might 
readily be construed as the correction of an error in orthography, 
this objection seems hardly sufficient to justify the setting aside 
of Gray’s genera altogether. From a scientific standpoint the 
claims of Herberta are fully as good as those of many other genera 
which are accepted without question, and the writer is therefore 
disposed to recognize it, at least for the present. 
A year after the appearance of Herberta, Dumortier§ published 
his genus Schisma, including under it not only J. adunca but also 
J. juniperina Sw. and J. concinnata Lightf. Nine years later he 
added another species, S. stramineum Dumort.,|| but excluded 
J. concinnata, making it the type of his new genus Acolea. At 
* Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. 
7 Nat. Arr. British Pl. £: 705. 1821. 
t Jour. Bot. 3: 300. 1865. 
§ Comm. Bot. 114. 1822. 
|| Syll. Jung. 76. 1831. 
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