THE FERX BULLETIN 



123 



enables them to be handled in print more easily. Any- 

 one having a taste for naming forms of this kind should 

 have no trouble in securing material for the work if 

 a careful search is made in the haunts of the ferns. 



Crested Margixale Shield Fern. — In the ac- 

 count of the forms of the marginal shield fern (Ne- 

 phr odium margiualc) published in the April number 

 of this magazine no mention was made of a crested 

 form of this fern described from Xew England by 

 Floyd in 1902. Its omission was an inadvertence upon 

 the part of the editor who overlooked the fact that 

 the crested form of this species had received a name. 

 The form in question was described in Rhodora for 

 December. 1002 and given the name of Xcphrodium 

 marginalc f. Dauenportii in honor of the late George 

 E. Davenport. A curious failure to append the author 

 citation runs through all the published references to it 

 that we have access to. It is mentioned by both East- 

 man and Waters without mention of the describer. The 

 reason for this is doubtless the fact that crested forms 

 are likely to be found, indeed are expected to be found, 

 in all species of ferns and so little attention is paid to 

 them. 



Living Ferxs Found Fossil. — As a usual thing, 

 the fossil ferns belong to extinct species that may sug- 

 gest more or less close relationships to present day 

 forms but are not identical. Such generic names as 

 AzoUophyllum and Asplcnitcs indicate relationships of 

 this kind.. For the most part, the ferns now inhabiting 

 the earth belong to recent genera and are not found 

 fossil There are. however, a considerable number of 

 fossils that are regarded as identical with modern 

 genera, and not a few have been assumed to belong to 

 existing species. The fern genera reported among 

 American fossils are Ancimia. Asplcnium, Blechnum. 



