176 FERN GROWING 



his death, said, " If you will come to Clifton on Saturday, I am prepared to be 

 convinced by a short conversation that your views regarding nomenclature are 

 correct. I have been following Moore, who has led all of us astray ; but we 

 must recollect that when he started giving varieties Latin names, they could be 

 counted on his fingers. The varieties are now too numerous for us to perpetuate 

 descriptive Latin names. Your discovery of multiple parentage (every step of 

 which I have myself proved) is such a revolution that the time has now arrived 

 for the disuse of Latin. You cannot alter old-established names, but you can 

 prevent compound words in future nomenclature. Turning to genera, Baker of 

 Kew has discarded Athyrium, Polystichum, Lastrea, and Blechnicm, for Asplenium, 

 Aspidium, Nephrodium, and Lomaria. Several of my Fern friends say this is 

 wrong, though Moore has convinced me that such alterations are not without 

 reason. You will not be hard on our errors, as some twenty years ago you 

 followed Moore in 'Our Native Ferns.'" 



