226 



FEHN-b'I.OUA OF CANADA 



TEE SPECIES OF FERNS; THEIR ARRANBEMENT OR CLASSIFICA- 

 TION INTO GENERA; THEIR GENERIC AND SPECIFIC NAMES. 



Oenera and Species. — The species of ferns arc elm ufied into Genera, and 

 each geniLS has its genciic name ; it is usual to illustrate this by comparing a genus 

 to a family of people, each (jcjiu.^ of plants being known by its generic name 

 just as each family is known by the ancestral namci. In like manner, as the 

 full name ol a person is formeil by uniting the individual or given name with the 

 ancestral family name, so the full name of the kind or species of fern is formed by 

 writing together the giuieric and specilic names, as l^oh//>o(finni viihjare, in which 

 J\)/f/l)i)dinin is the generic, and vuhjare the specilic name. This comparison of 

 the names ot si)ecies and genera of [)lants to the individual and family names of 

 l)eople is correct merely so far as it is an exam[)Ie of the mode ado[»ted in naming 

 things and aninuds and p(;opIe ; it must not be supposed that the analogy or com- 

 l»arison can be carried further, for a person is not a sjiecies, but only one of a 

 great many iutlividuals, who, taken together, form the human race, the Species. 

 It is e(j[ually true that a family, a numlter of related individuals, can only be 

 likened in a distant v/ay to a (jenus. More correct com[)arisons may be made with 

 the lower animals. The dug and jackal anil wolf are all dilleient, and easily 

 known from each other, they are all sei)arate species, and those who study ani- 

 mals — zoologists — give to each a t^pecAjic name, just as botanists do with their 

 plants. But the dog and jackal and wolf are in nu\ny ways alike, — in the forms 

 of their bodies, their teeth, their food, their habit of running in packs, and so 

 on, — and a zoologist nuiy class them all togyther into one genus, and give to that 

 genus the generic name Canis. So with our Ferns. All the delicate liladder 

 Ferns are known by the geneiic name Ci/sfojderis ; the family of Spleenwoits is 

 known as Aspleniiim ; the Shield Ferns, with hard glistening s[)iny-edged fronds, 

 and orbicular strong shield-like indusia or coverings to their fruit dots, are styled 

 Polystichum ; and the species of IJuckler Ferns, with duller foliage and thinner 

 kidney-shaped indusia, are called Lastrea. The separate species in a genus have 

 each a Specific name or term added to the generic one, just as human individuals, 

 members of the same family, have dilierent chiistian names, and, as we have 

 seen, the two names or terms so united form the complete name of the particular 



