277 



The constancy or inconstancy of the mode of attachment of the 

 capsules and of the presence of the involucre may thus be exhibited : 



Robert Brown was the first to perceive how essentially the fructifica- 

 tion of the common Brakes differed from that of other ferns with which 

 it was associated under the name of Pteris. Sir J. E. Smith dwelt 

 on this discrepancy, but appears not to have considered it generic ; 

 and it seems to have escaped the notice of almost every other botanist. 

 John Smith — a name I am ever ready to honour — gives the weight of 

 his authority against separating aquilina from the genuine Pterides : 

 he remarks in the * Journal of Botany' (vol. iv. p. 165), " some obser- 

 vers have stated that the sori of Pteris aquilina are furnished with a 

 narrow indusium situated on the inner side of the receptacle, but 

 from my own observation I cannot consider the slightly elevated fim- 

 briate ridge which bounds the inner side of the sporangia as being 

 analogous to an indusium." In my attempt therefore to separate 

 generically, Pteris aquilina from the genuine Pterides, I fear I shall 

 meet with slender encouragement. It should, however, be observed 

 that the genus Pteris has long been disintegrated : several marked 

 forms having been separated under the names of Allosorus, Platyloma, 

 Doryopteris, Litobrochia and Cassebeera : while a group, more strik- 

 ingly heterogeneous since the abduction of these divisions, still 

 retains the original appellation of Pteris. In accordance with esta- 

 blished usage the name of Pteris should remain with the first or typi- 

 cal species, and such others as may be supposed to possess the great- 

 est number of distinctive characters in common with that typical 

 species : while aquilina, the thirteenth on the Linnean list, and per- 

 haps more decidedly remote than either of the others, seems to require 

 a new name. I therefore propose calling it Eupteris aquilina, since, 

 although it is not the Linnean type, it is essentially the Pteris of all 

 botanists. 



