120 American Fern Journal 



out consulting Hooker in the matter, it seems to me 

 that the specific name should be Goldieanvm. It may 

 be true that Hooker wrote it Goldianurn, but we have 

 the right to correct the spelling of any wrongly spelled 

 specific name and since Goldie spelled his name with 

 a final "e" we ought to make the word Goldieamim. 

 L. M. Underwood so used it in his books and he was a 

 man not likely to go astray in such matters. 



Still another instance of the change from form to 

 variety in the author citation that may interest fern 

 students may be found in Rhodora for May, 1913 

 (page 87). Here a form of Ophioglossum vulgatum called 

 variety lanceolatum is renamed Ophioglossum vulgatum 

 forma lanceolatum and this slight change, so slight that 

 the average reader will have to look at it again to find 

 a difference, is regarded as sufficient warrant for a change 

 in the author citation. It may be possible that the 

 systematist is so completely engrossed in the job as to 

 fail to appreciate the al urdity of it all, but to the aver- 

 age individual this seems too petty for educated adults 

 to engage in and 1 believe the time will come when the 

 systematist will see the affair in the same light. 



If we are to have differences in the writing of scientific 

 names based on the slight differences in significance 

 between form and variety, some of the scientists inter- 

 ested should give us an exact definition of each word as 

 it applies in botany, so that the future work of naming 

 may be simplified. At present we have been accustomed 

 to write species with a generic and specific name, sub- 

 species with a generic, specific, and subspecific name, 

 and lesser forms with the word form or variety before 

 them to signify that they are not subspecies. Then why 

 this distinction between two words which mean the 

 same thing? 



Joliet, Illinois. 



