MAXON— STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 483 



Indian plant. The lasl is, however, ail invalid name: and in -ill) 

 stituting another, occasion may be taken to indicate the grounds lor 

 fixing upon the Virginian plant as the type of Asplenium rhizophyl- 

 lum in preference to the other two element- originally included by 

 Linnaeus. 



At page 1<>7^ of the first edition of the Species Plantarum appears 

 the following: 



rhizophylla. ASPLENIUM frondibus cordato-ensiformibua indivisis: apice 



Qliforme radicante. \mmit. mini. 2. //. :;:;t. 

 Phyllitis fllicifolia parva saxatilis virginiana per summitates foil- 



oi-i i ii i radicosa. /'////,-. aim. 154. /. LO^ /. '■'>. 

 Phyllitis dob sinuata minor, apice folii radices agente. Sloan. 



jam. 1 1. hist. 1. /<• 71. /. 26. /. 1. 

 Phyllitis saxatilia virginiana per summitates foliorum prolifera. 



Moris, hist. ;;. p. 557. s. 14. t. 1. /. 14. 

 Habitat in Jamaica. Virginia. Canada, Sibiria. 



Turning to the second volume of the Amoenitates we find the 



twenty-ninth, by Ilalen. dated December 22. 1 7.">0. comprising pages 

 332 to 364, to be entitled ** Plantae Camschatcenses Rariores " and to 

 contain among other things a brief chapter descriptive (at leasl by 



citation) of some eleven plants of a recent Kamchatkan collection 

 which are supposed to be identical with species known previously 

 from North America. One of these is mentioned at page 337 as 

 follows : 



ASPLENIUM frondibus laneoolatis indivisis: apice filiformibus radicantibus. 



Phyllitis non sinuata minor, apice folii radices agente. Sloan, rim-. 1 I. 

 Filicifolia Phyllitis parva saxatilis virginiana per summitates foliorum 

 radicosa. Pink. aim. ir>4. t. 105. f. •">. Phyllitis saxatilis virginiana, per 

 summitates foliorum prolifera. Moris, hist. 3. p. -"."7. s. 14. t. 1. /. 14. 



Although the plant in hand was from Kamchatka the citation- 

 show (dearly that the Jamaican plant described and figured by 

 Sloane and the Virginian described and figured by both Plukenet 

 and Morrison were confused with this. The question i- merely upon 

 the restricted application of the trivial name rhizophyllum given 

 later by Linnaeus. 



The Amoenitates description, "ASPLENIUM frondibus lanceolate 

 indivisis: apice filiformibus," though without much doubt drawn to 

 cover the Kamchatkan plant particularly, must in any event apply 

 either to this or to the Virginian, for the descriptive term - filiform " 

 is totally inapplicable to the apices of the Jamaican species. Later. 

 in the Species Plantarum (1753), the specific character (though 

 credited to the Amoenitates) i- so altered a- to read " frondibus 

 cordato-ensiformibus * * * : apice filiforme *." Thus, 



to those who know the several species under discussion, it should*be 

 apparent at once that the Virginian plant i- here especially meant. 



20370—08 2 



