SCE MSLETITERS. 

USE OF FERN NAMES. 
WHILE Messrs. Fernald and Pollard are discussing the names by which 
our American ferns should be known, a few observations upon another side 
of the subject may be inseason. I refer to the practice of fern students in 
the use of these names. There are in America about two thousand persons 
at present engaged in the study of our ferns and fern allies. Of this number 
I am confident that fully nine tenths are committed to what may be called a 
conservative nomenclature. Granted that the names given in the sixth edi- 
tion of Professor Underwood’s Our Native Ferns are correct according to the 
Rochester code, the mass of fern students see in this no argument for adopting 
them. The reason why they do not is easily found. In adopting most of the 
names proposed, the student would be departing from almost world-wide 
usage and bringing confusion into a part of the study that has thus far prac- 
tically escaped. A single instance will illustrate. Cystopteris fragilis is a 
plant of almost world-wide distribution. It is found in the West Indies, 
South Africa, India, and Alaska, as well as the United States, and is every- 
where known by the name I have here given it. The question may be fairly 
asked, then, what it would avail American students to unite with Professor 
Underwood in calling it Filix fragilis. They would only succeed in making 
themselves misunderstood to fern students in other parts of the world. On 
the other hand, certain changes, such as Athyrium for part of Asplenium, 
and Polystichum for part of Aspidium, have been readily adopted, because 
these names are in common use abroad, and by accepting them the American 
student comes more into harmony with universal usage. In thus rejecting 
some names and accepting others, the fern student is really consistent, 
although at first glance he may not seem to be. 
The fact that many of our ferns are common to the old world, also, puts 
a slightly different aspect on the subject of their nomenclature in the opinion 
of the student; we cannot “go it alone” in the matter of names. And, after 
all, those interested in the plants themselves care very little for improve- 
ments in their names. At the same time, the value of knowing what names 
have been proposed for our ferns in the past is not underestimated ; these 
names are a part of the plant's history. But the proposal to adopt them is 
quite another matter. Just as we have agreed not to go beyond Linnaeus for 
specific names, although there were such names before his day, so the fern 
446 [JUNE 



