48 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



history of this fern is summed up in the following chronological 

 synonymy : 



Nephrodiuni lanosum Michx., 1803. 



Cheilanthes vestita Swz., 1806. 



Cheilanthes lanosa Watt, 1 874. 



Watt rightly discarded the specific name given this plant by 

 Swartz, and adopted the earlier specific one given by Michaux. 

 The full name is then written 



Cheilanthes lanosa (Michx.) Watt, 

 the parenthesis noting the fact that the specific name was given 

 by Michaux with a generic combination different from the one 

 in which it now stands. 



The practice of a few botanists has been to give a species the 

 first name it bore under a genus. In this case the plant in ques- 

 tion would bear the specific name vestita so long as it remained 

 in Cheilanthes, but if transferred to the genus Nephrodium it 

 would have to bear the specific name lanosum,3.nd if transferred 

 to some other genus might bear still a third. The absurdity of 

 such a practice is clearly apparent.* 



: 25. — A case slightly more complicated is seen in the hart's- 

 tongue — the lingua cervina of the pre-Linnaean botanists. Its 

 chronological synonymy is as follows : 



Asplenium Scolopendrium L., 1753. 



Scolopendrium vulgare]. E. Smith, 1793. 



Phyllitis Scolopendrium Newman, 1854. 



Scolopendrium Scolopendrium Karsten, 1883. 



The last name is perfectly legitimate although a duplication, 

 and so long as the plant remained in the genus Scolopendriinn 

 that was its appropriate name. But the genus Scolopendrium 

 was founded by Adanson in i763,t and the generic name Phyl- 

 litis founded in pre-Linnaean times on the same plant was used 

 since Linnaeus at least as early as 1757. This being true, New- 

 man's combination is the correct one to follow, and the full cita- 

 tion would be 



Phyllitis Scolopendrium (L.) Newm. 



* For each plant or group there can be only one valid name, and that is 

 always the most ancient if it is tenable. — A. Gray. 

 t Not by J. E. Smith, 1793, as usually supposed. 



