123 
THE NOMENCLATURE OF PLATYCERIUM. 
By W. Carruruers, F.R.S. 
My recent examination of the pee of this genus cong 
it clear that some changes must be made in the received names of 
the species. The genus first appeared in itarutaee 3 in the waiuge 
of Plukenet. In his Mantissa, p. 82 (1700), he describes a plant 
from Johanna Island as ‘ Filix sive Hemionitis multifida platyceros, 
8. segmentis coriaceis, cornu cervinum referentibus, aversa parte 
Plukenet’s plants in Herb. Sloan. vol. xcii. fol. 70, andis a good spe- 
cimen of Platycerium alcicorne Desv. In his ails si sal big or 
a smaller specimen of the same species, also from Joh sland. 
Both these plants were most probably collected by Patrick Adair, 
to whom Plukenet was indebted for many South African 
plants. This oe es under the name of ‘‘ Neuroplatyceros 
AXithiopicus, nervosis foliis, cornu cervinum sie nace c. D. 15 
(1705), and igure in his Phytographia, t. 429, f Tle specimen 
is in Herb. Sloan. vol. ie seg 194. In 1794 Willemet published 
his Herbarium Mauritianum (Usteri Annal. Bot. xviii. 61), and he 
st 
Pe os under the n of der then hee a plant es Port 
Jackson, New South V Wales, which Robert Brown afterwards, i Lh his 
Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. (1810), p. 145, referred to A. alcicorne Sw. When 
Desvaux, in his ‘* Prodrome des Fougéres,” published in fee Ann, 
Soc. Linn. Paris, 1827, p. 218, established the genus Platycerium, he 
considered the Australian plant to be specifically different from 
. alcicorne, and called it P. angustatum Desv. In this opinion he 
has not been followed by later systematists—Hooker, Fée, a. 
&e.—so that Desvaux’s name must placed as a synonym 
P. alcicorne. In 1844-5 Fée, in his Hist. Acrost. (p. 102), iis. 
duced the first word of Plukenet’s descriptive name as if it had 
been meant by its author to be of generic value, and ire: 
Platycerium Desy. asa synonym. This obviously cannot be adopted. 
Fée, further mislead by the general a ‘ Aithiopicus,”’ 
oun 
fo : 
tab. 9 (1862), and Sp. Fil. v. p. 283, follows bed in regard to the 
species, but calls it Platycerium <Asthiopicum a 
Plukenet’s figure as a “‘ young and very rastosk fertile fics: 
K 2 
