Vol. 4 No. 4 



TORREYA 



Apnl, 1904 



THE EARLY WRITERS OX EERNS AND THEIR ^^j^^^ 

 COLLECTIONS— II. J. E.Smith, 1759-1828 ; ^^W > 



SvVARTZ, I760-1818; WlLLDENOW, I765-1812 ftOTA''^ 



By L. M. Underwood 



Aside from minor changes in the generic arrangement of Lin- 

 naeus * and occasional additions to the number of species by 

 various writers, notably Thunberg, Forskal, Forster, Lamarck, 

 and Cavanilles, the principal generic changes as well as the more 

 extensive additions to fern species up to the end of the first 

 decade of the last century were made by Smith, Swartz, and 

 W'ilklcnow. Sir James Edward Smith is not to be confused with 

 the less eminent, but so far as fern lore is concerned, more dis- 

 tinguished John Smith who flourished a half century or more 

 later. Smith published in 1793 an important paper t which was 

 one of the first attempts at a natural classification of ferns. He 

 established the genera IVoodzvardia, Vittaria, Davallia, Cyatlica^ 

 Hymenophylliun, GlcicJicnia, and Danaea. While some of these, 

 like Cyat]ica,\ for example, were highly unnatural groups, the 



* Theodor Holm (Torreya, 3: 187-188) has taken exceptions to my state- 

 ment regarding the types of Linnaeus. It is well known that Linnaeus' one- 

 line descriptions of ferns are worthless, and in many cases he gives only citations. 

 As 1 have shown, among the ferns at least, his types are equally so, and Mr. Iloim 

 says even worse things about them. There is therefore nothing left on which to de- 

 pend for identifying his types but his citations and, on these, rational interpreters of 

 Linnaeus have hitherto depended for identifications. If now, as Mr. Holm avers, 

 these are not to be regarded as typical of his species but merely as giving " some 

 idea of their general habit or aspect," Linnaeus becomes from a systematic stand- 

 point even more useless than we have given him credit for being. 



We examined the specimen preserved under Osiniiticia Liotaria in herb. Linnaeus 

 last summer and it was labeled as before stated. 



f Tentamen Botanicum de Filicum generibus dorsiferarum. Mem. Acad. Sci. 

 Turin, 5 : 401-422. //. 9. 1793 (also sep. pp. 22). Smith also published various 

 articles on ferns in Rees' Cyclopaedia, which was published between 1S02 and 1819. 



X Cyathea besides containing three genera of tree ferns as now understood included 

 also two of our delicate bladder ferns [Filix)\ 



[Vol. 4, No. 3, of Torreya, comprising pages 33-4S, was issued March 12, 1904. ] 



