Vol. 5 No. 



TORREYA 



March, 1905 



THE EARLY WRITERS ON FERNS AND THEIR 

 COLLECTIONS — IV. Presl, 1794-1852; John- 

 Smith, 1798-1888; Fek, 1789-1874; AND • '•'-•■''^•'^Y 

 MooKE. 182.-, 887 BOTANICAL 



Hy L. M. Underwood QAl^Dki.N 



The real enlargement of the conception of fern genera com- 

 menced with Presl and continued with John Smith, Fee and 

 Moore, who were the generic " splitters " in this group of plants. 

 The form of the sporangium had early served to distinguish 

 families, and genera were characterized by the varied distribu- 

 tion of the sporangia over the leaf-surface, combined with the 

 shape of the indusium. Under this method of distinguishing 

 genera Swartz had recognized 38 genera in 1806, and Willdenow 

 43 in 1810 ; Desvaux, more liberal, recognized 70 in 1827, and 

 Sprengel the same year foiund only 66. These numbers wert 

 nearly up to the Hookerian standard, for in the Synopsis Fi/icuin 

 of 1874 only 76 genera were recognized for the orders Ophio- 

 glossales, Marattiales, and Filicales. Contrasted with these num- 

 bers, the above-named writers increased the number of fern genera 

 as follows : 



Presl, 232 genera. 



John Smith, 220 genera. 



Fee, 181 genera (Polypodiaceae, only). 



Moore, 176 genera. 



Karel Boriwog Presl (1794-1852), a native of Bohemia, con.- 

 menced publication among the ferns in the Dcliciac Pragcusis 

 (1822) and \.\\ft Reliquiae Hacnkeaiuu (1825*) in which he de- 

 .scribed numerous species from Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and tht 

 Philippines. Then followed his first publication on genera in his 



*riie date on the title page of the first volume is 1830, but the work was put 

 lished in parts, the parts containing the ferns in 1825. 



[Vol. 5, \o. 2, of ToRKKVA, comprising pages 21-36, was issued February 2^. 

 '905 ] 



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