14 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



ranean and tuber-like structures quite unlike the pro- 

 thallium of the fern. In the Ohio Naturalist for Nov- 

 ember, 1909, Prof. J. H. Schaffner notes that in one 

 locality in Northern Ohio large numbers of these 

 gametophytes were dug up being located by the first 

 tiny leaf growing from them. Students interested in 

 finding them may possibly trace them in other locali- 

 ties by this means. 



The Lady Fern. — In the plant world we find many 

 species in whose common name the word lady or 

 ladies' figures are a limiting adjective. The use of the 

 word is not the same in all cases. It may be given to 

 signify a more delicate and dainty cahracter as in 

 ladies' sorrel or to asociate it with the gentler sex as in 

 ladies' tobacco. In few if any cases does there seem to 

 be implied any sex in the plant itself. The word Lady, 

 applies to plants has a far different significance. It 

 was originally given in honor of "Our Lady," the 

 Virgin Mary and almost always applied to handsome 

 species. Occasionally we find that the ancient botanists 

 have superposed a saint's name on the name of some 

 heather deity given to a plant, and in many cases it 

 was Our Lady's name that supplanted the older one. 

 This is the case with the plant, which, as the name 

 Cypripedium hints, was originally called Venus' shoe 

 but is now known as Our Lady's Slipper or commonly 

 lady's slipper. The lady fern does not fall into either 

 of the foregoing classes. It received its name to de- 

 note "femaleness." The translation of the scientific 

 name is more properly female fern than lady fern. In 

 the floras of both Europe and America we find another 

 species Nephrodium filix-mas which is always called 

 the male fern, never gentleman fern. Occasionally the 

 bracken (Pteris aquilina) is also called male fern. The 



