STUDYING FERNS IN EUROPEAN HERBARIA 



By WILLIAM R. MAXON, 

 Associate Curator, Diz'isioii of Plants, U. S. National Mnscttm 



In furtherance of studies upon which I have heen engaged inter- 

 mittently for many years, I was enabled last summer to visit Europe 

 and to carry on work at several botanical institutions, with the view 

 of preparing a descriptive account of the fern flora of Jamaica. 

 Extensive field work l)y myself and others at intervals since 1900 

 had yielded large series of specimens which in themselves might 

 seem to aiTord a sufficient basis, yet there existed the need of com- 

 paring many of these with the original (type) specimens in European 

 herbaria and re-identifying much other material, in order to settle 

 many points of identity not only, but of relationship and range as well. 



Mention has been made previously ' of the important position 

 occupied by Jamaica with respect to current studies of the tropical 

 American fern flora — a flora surprisingly rich, even to those most 

 familiar with it. The first New World ferns to be described in any 

 number were West Indian, and of those that received scientific names 

 in the modern sense a large proportion were from Jamaica. For 

 difl^ering reasons, many of these names, given originally to char- 

 acteristic Jamaican species, have since been applied loosely or quite 

 erroneously to related plants from other regions ; from which it 

 follows that progress in describing properly the diverse tropical 

 American fern flora as a whole must be dependent largely upon 

 having first an accurate knowledge of the ferns of Jamaica. Though 

 obvious, the point has been often overlooked in recent work. 



I sailed from New York for Southampton July 4, and on the 

 return passage reached New York October 12. Most of the interven- 

 ing period was passed in London, studying at the British Museum 

 (Natural History) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. At the 

 former institution several days were given first to a critical re- 

 examination of the Jamaican ferns collected in 1687-89 by Sir Hans 

 Sloane, virtual founder of the British Museum ; many of these were 

 faithfully illustrated in his " History " of the island, and served as 

 the partial basis for numerous new species proposed by later writers. 



'Smithsonian Misc. Coll. Vol. 78, No. 7, pp. lOO-iii, figs. 110-118, 1927. 



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