178 GYMNOGRAMMA TRIANGULARIS. CALIFORNIA GOLD FERN. 



o-enera, and with some other characters of more or less impor- 

 tance the great family of ferns was divided into numerous 

 o-enera, and their study much simplified in consequence. Still 

 division has been carried further than sound dividing characters 

 perhaps warrant, — certainly beyond the point that natural appear- 

 ances in the species grouped into genera seem to demand ; and 

 while there have been over five hundred genera described by 

 various modern authors, it is probable there are really but one- 

 third of that number which would stand cridcism from a truly 

 natural point of view. Our genus GymnogTamma was taken 

 from Acrostic/mm in 181 1, by Desveaux, a celebrated French 

 botanist of the early part of the century, and chiefly because 

 the fruit was not only in right lines, but was characterized by 

 the absence of an indusium or membrane, which usually seems 

 to cover in part the sporangia. It was from this peculiarity that 

 the name Gymiiogramma was formed; gymnos being a Greek 

 word for naked, and gramma, wridng or lines ; that is, the lines 

 of fruit being naked. The species are somewhat numerous, but 

 chiefly inhabit tropical regions. Only two enter the limits of 

 the United States. Of these only our present subject has ven- 

 tured far within its borders, and this is found from along the 

 Pacific coast from Central America north to Vancouver's Island. 

 It was first discovered, like so many other of our western species, 

 by the Vancouver expedition, and named Gymnogi^amma tri- 

 angidaris by Kaulfuss, who described the ferns collected on this 

 voyage in his "Enumeration Filicum," published In Leipsic in 

 1824. Our knowledge of it is therefore comparatively recent, 

 and we are only now beginning to find that several supposed 

 disdnct species of various authors belong to It. Sir W. J. 

 Hooker, in his "Species Filicum," says, "It Is remarkably uniform 

 in Its form and ramificadons," but specimens from different col- 

 lectors In the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, show the variadons usual In well-known ferns. 

 Mr. Nuttall has specimens from San Diego, California, which he 

 thought deserving of a disdnct specific name. He labels it G. 



