Vol. 3 No. 10 



TORREYA 



October, 1903 



H'HE EARLY WRITERS ON FERNS AND THEIR 

 COLLECTIONS.— I. Linnaeus, 1 707-1 778 



By L. M. Underwood 



A little two- volume leather-bound book bearing on its title-page 

 the words, Species Plantanun, 1753, has now become quite rare 

 from the demands made since the Berlin, Rochester, and Genoa 

 decisions of 1892 made it the starting point of botanical nomen- 

 clature. Many people still hold the erroneous opinion that Lin- 

 naeus was the originator of binominal nomenclature. The first 

 book to figure American ferns was published in 1635,* nearly a 

 hundred years before Linnaeus published a line, and gave illus- 

 trations and descriptions of two of our American species, calling 

 them Filix baccifera and Adiantum Americanum, names which 

 by right they should bear instead of those adopted a hundred 

 and eighteen years later by Linnaeus. The same work in- 

 cluded many other binomial names some of which, like Asaron 

 Canadense, are the names the plants still bear. In Species Plan- 

 tarum Linnaeus simply brought together in a compact and usa- 

 ble form a condensation of the enormous mass of botanical pub- 

 lication that preceded him and reduced the whole to a system 

 which though artificial is readily accessible, which fact has in- 

 vested his volumes with an importance perhaps greater than that 

 of any other single botanical work. 



The ferns and fern allies of Linnaeus were grouped under two 

 of the major divisions of his Class XXIV. Cryptogamia, Filices 

 and Musci ; the genera recognized, with the number and distribu- 

 tion of species may be seen from the following table : 



*Cornut. Canadensium plantarum * * * Historia. Paris, 1635. 

 [Vol. 3, No. 9, of Torreya, comprising pages 1 29-144, was issued September 

 6, 1903. ] 



145 



