DISTRIBUTION OF FERNS. 



35 



those selecting species for cultivation. All cata- 

 logues and books do not give the same name to 

 the same fern. Some authors use Hooker's names, 

 some Moore's or Smith's, and so on. This is an 

 unfortunate practice, and causes frequent mistakes. 

 Then, again, the same name has been unintention- 

 ally used by different botanists to describe quite 

 different ferns : so it becomes necessary to use the 

 name of the person who described each species, to 

 distinguish it with certainty from others. Thus 

 the Polypodium auricidatum of Linnaeus is our 

 Asplenium .ebeneum of Alton, a little fern; while 

 the Polypodiiim auriculatum of Wallich is a true 

 Polypodmm, with fronds four feet long and a foot 

 broad. This illustrates how important it is, in 

 speaking of ferns, to mention the name of the 

 describer as well as that of the species. 



The generic names of ferns are principally made 

 by a combination of two Greek words, often proper 

 names, with a Latin termination. Some are de- 

 rived from mythological characters, local aborigi- 

 nal titles, &c. ; while there are a number of 

 unknown origin and unintelligible application. 

 Pteris (from pteroit — wing) is found in combi- 

 nation with other words in many names of ferns. 

 It was originally applied to the Bracken : and, as 

 this is one of the most common of ferns, it has 

 come to be used to signify ferns in general ; as 

 StrutJiiopteris {striithios — ostrich), the Ostrich 



