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THE FERN BULLETIN 



a sunny, habitat, are likely to wilt rapidly and thus 

 form but an indifferent packing so far as keeping pro- 

 ducts fresh is concerned. Ferns, especially the bracken, 

 are of much more extended use in packing in Great 

 Britain than with us, and the people are not allowed to 

 cut brackens when and where they please. The whole 

 subject is one of considerable interest and we hope 

 some of our British readers may give us more light on 

 the subject. 



Fern Genera. — I am pleased at the attitude 

 you take on the nomenclature question. It is 

 the only sensible one. I have recently been 

 looking up fern genera and the changes that 

 Underwood made in species because of so called 

 priority. It is astonishing how many blunders he 

 made. Take Filix for Cy stopfer is for instance, and 

 Drypoteris for Aspidium. They are based on Adan- 

 sort's genera created in his Fam. des Phlantes. So far 

 as I can learn no species of Filix ever was published till 

 Underwood renamed Cystopteris; at least none were 

 published till long after the species of Cystopteris were. 

 It should be noted that Adanson never published any 

 species in connection with his proposed genera and so 

 the genera fall without someone else took them up and 

 used them later. The same is true of Dryopteris ; no 

 species of that genus were published till long after 

 Swartz published his species of Aspidium, and so 

 Dryopteris falls. In addition there is nothing in Adan- 

 son's description of Filix to tell whether it refers to 

 Phegopteris or Cystopteris, and none in Dryopteris to 

 indicate whether it refers to Nephrodium, Phanero- 

 phlebia or other segregates from Aspidium. He speaks 

 of the indusium as being peltate, while it is not so in 

 Aspidium. — M areas E. Jones, Salt Lake City, Utah. 



