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396 BENEDICT: REVISION OF THE GENUS VITTARIA 
United States. Only the latest editions are of any general interest 
or use. 
For incontrovertible evidence, however, that Necker used 
later texts than the 1753 Species Plantarum, I am able to cite two 
distinct references which I owe to Dr. P. A. Rydberg and which 
definitely identify the Linnaean work to which Necker is referring 
as the fourteenth edition of the Systema Naturae, the work of 
John Murray and not of Linnaeus. These references are Necker, 
Elementa Botanica 2: 94, and 3: 12. 
The other of Dr. Greene’s misconceptions has to do with the 
wording of Necker’s original description of Oetosis, which is as 
follows: 
1726. CHAR. Diacn. Lineae, parallelae, ad periphaeriam fron- 
dium, in aversa pagina. 
Frondes simplices. 
Cuar. Pec. Fructific. lineae parallelae, ad periphaeriam 
in aversa pagina frondium sitae. 
Globuli, coacervati; singuli, annulo elastico cinguntur. 
Besimina in globulis inclusa, exigua, fertilia. 
Individua neutra in hac specie, stipitata. 
Frondes simplices. Quaed. Pterid. Linn. 
In the first place, it seems to me a priori improbable that 
Necker could have intended this description to apply to only a 
single Linnaean species of Pteris. ‘‘Quaed.” is of uncertain 
number as far as its form is concerned, but I believe in this case 
it is certainly plural. A general examination of Necker’s text 
will show that the generic names used are either Linnaean names 
or else they are new; that is, apparently he has either retained 
the Linnaean genera exactly, or he has divided them, retaining the 
old name for part of the species and proposing a new name for 
the others. Often in such a case, it is evident that Necker’s new 
genus corresponds exactly to some species-group recognized by Lin- 
naeus. The present case furnishes a good illustration of this point. 
The genus Pteris as delimited in the first edition of Species 
Plantarum (and later texts) is divided into three groups as follows: 
‘Frondibus simplicissimis 
“ Frondibus simpliciter pinnatis 
“Frondibus sub-compositae”’ 
