THE FERX BULLETIN 



87 



why we occasionally use Pteridium instead of Ptcris. 

 Variety adds to the spice of life, we are told, and what 

 is the use of sticking to one term when the name- 

 tinkerers have given us more. The English language 

 owes not a little of its expressiveness to its abundant 

 synonyms, then why should we use Lastrca all the time 

 when we have a choice of Nephr odium and Aspidium 

 and Dryopteris and then some more? Or why stick 

 to Poly podium when we may use Phegopteris, Goni- 

 opteris or even Dryopteris? To come down to well- 

 known facts, the bracken has a sort of fugacious in- 

 dusium inside the common one. The genus Ptcris 

 lacks this ; therefore the bracken is often considered 

 worth placing in a separate genus. The editor of this 

 magazine does not believe that so small a matter as 

 the occasional presence of a fugacious indusium is of 

 generic importance but if his contributors do. he lets 

 them have their own way confident that they will re- 

 form in due time. — Ed.] 



Ferns as Food Preservers. — An item has recently 

 appeared in several horticultural publications to the 

 effect that fern leaves are much superior to any other 

 vegetation for packing fruit, vegetables, butter, etc. 

 According to "Consul-General Richard Guenther" po- 

 tatoes packed in fern leaves keep much better than if 

 packed in straw which is due to the high percentage of 

 salt in fern leaves. To one familiar with the ferns, 

 this appears like a story made to fit the facts. It is 

 well known that various fruits fish and vegetables have 

 been sent to market from time immemorial packed in 

 fern leaves, but this is without doubt due to the fact 

 that such packing material is usually both cheap and 

 handy rather than because it contains any substance 

 that acts as a preservative. As a matter of fact, most 

 fern leaves, being adjusted to a shady, rather than to 



