THE WOOD FERNS. 



OUBTLESS the majority of our ferns 

 grow in forests, or at least in shady 

 places, and so might without im- 

 propriety be called wood ferns, but 

 the members of the genus Aspidium 

 are so noticeably abundant in all forested areas that the 

 name seems by right to belong to them. In the matter 

 of names, however, this genus has been rather unfairly 

 treated so far as a permanent name is concerned. As to 

 the number of its names, nothing can be complained 

 of. In the vernacular, the species are known as shield- 

 ferns, wood-ferns, boss-ferns and buckler-ferns and the 

 scientists are divided as to whether the genus shall 

 be known as Aspidium, Dryopteris, Nephr odium or 

 Lastrea. In the Old World, the species are oftenest 

 called Lastrea or Nephrodium ; in American books they 

 will usually be found in the genus Aspidium. It is but 

 recently that the proposal to substitute the name 

 Dryopteris has been made. This latter may perhaps 

 be the oldest name, and therefore, according to the 

 much cited rule of priority, the proper one for the 

 genus, but it has thus far failed of acceptance by most 

 botanists. 



Whatever confusion exists in regard to the names, does 

 not extend to the plants themselves. They may at once 

 be distinguished from other ferns by bearing their sporan- 

 gia in roundish sori covered with a kidney-shaped indu- 

 sium that is attached to the frond by the sinus. 



