Notes and News 57 



Finally, I might mention, with regard to nomenclature, 

 that most botanists here follow the Kew Gardens author- 

 ities. We employ the term Nephrodium where you 

 prefer Dryopteris, though fern cultivators in particular 

 also use the name Lastraea. Our prickly shield ferns 

 we call Aspidium (though here again Poly sti chum is still 

 frequently used). The oak and the beech ferns are 

 classed under Polypodium because of their round, naked 

 sori. The lady fern, as previously mentioned, is not 

 placed under Asplenium by all, as indeed it bears no 

 resemblance to the spleenworts, which are evergreen, 

 rock-loving plants. 



I have, of course, omitted to mention several British 

 species which you do not have, but perhaps sufficient 

 has been said for a general comparison of the ferns of 

 the two countries. I personally retain the most pleasant 

 memories of the hours I spent studying the New England 

 ferns, and if it be possible, should like nothing better 

 than another holiday on your side of the Atlantic. 



Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital. 



Notes and news 



The Fragrant Shield Fern 



Mr. Editor: 



When just about ready to send you, for the Journal, 

 something about my experience with Dryopteris fragrans, 

 by accident I learned that soon after I lost a valued 

 friend, and correspondent in ferns, of years before, the 

 Fern Bulletin had published for the second time a 

 a part of that experience. So let me call this experience 

 Continued. I hope not Concluded, for I want to climb 

 old Mansfield five or six times more. And my "gala 

 days," as I called that of my first view of the fragrans, 



