24 COJIJION BRAKES. 



Franc. 55 ; Newm. N.A.n,F. 93 ; Hook, and Am. 575 ; 

 Bab, 415 ; Moore, 189. 



AUosorus aquilinus, Presl. Tent. 143. 



Eupteris aquiliiia, Neivm. Phytol. ii. 878 ; Phytol. Aj^p. iii. 



It will be seen by the list of synonymes, tbat authors are 

 generally agreed in giving to this common fern the name of 

 Pteris aquilina ; but neither its mode of growth, vernation, or 

 fructification agree with those of the species which Linneus has 

 placed as typical in his genus Pteris. Eobert Brown was the 

 first to perceive how essentially the fructification of the com- 

 mon brakes differed from that of other ferns with which it was 

 associated under the name of Pteris. Sir J. E. Smith dwelt on 

 this discrepancy, but appears not to have considered it generic ; 

 and it seems to have escaped the notice of almost every other 

 botanist. John Smith — a name I am ever readj' to honour — 

 gives the weight of his authority against separating aquilina 

 from the genuine Pterides : he remarks, in the ' Journal of 

 Botany' (vol. iv. j). 165), " Some observers have stated that the 

 sori of Pteris aquilina are furnished with a narrow indusium 

 situated on the inner side of the receptacle, but from my own 

 observation I cannot consider the slightly elevated fimbriate 

 ridge which bounds the inner side of the sporangia as being 

 analogous to an indusium." In my attempt, therefore, to sepa- 

 rate generically Pteris aquilina from the genuine Pterides, I 

 fear I shall meet with slender encouragement. It should, how- 

 ever, be observed, that the genus Pteris has long been disinte- 

 grated : several marked forms having been separated under the 

 names of AUosorus, Platyloma, Doryopteris, Litobrochia, and 

 Cassebeera : while a group, more strikingly heterogeneous 

 since the abstraction of these divisions, still retains the original 

 appellation of Pteris. In accordance with established usage, 

 the name of Pteris should remain with the first or typical spe- 

 cies, and such others as may be supposed to possess the greatest 

 number of distinctive characters in common with that typical 

 species : while aquilina, the thirteenth on the Linnean list, and 

 perhaps more decidedly remote than either of the others, seems 

 to require a new name. I therefore propose calling it Eupteris 

 aquilina, since, although it is not the Linnean type, it is essen- 

 tially the Pteris of all botanists. 



