THE FERN BULLETIN 



01 



Flora, the latest edition of the United States Dispen- 

 satory and many others. We who have consistently 

 adhered to Nephrodium during the Dryopteris heresy 

 have nothing to change. Even the Dryopteris botan- 

 ists understand us ,but the latter, forced by their ab- 

 surd rules to adopt the earliest name, must now upset 

 all their recent work and start in anew. The advan- 

 tages accruing from the adoption of that generic name 

 with which the scientific world is most familiar, will 

 never become evident to those interested in nomencla- 

 ture rather than in plants. But why should the stu- 

 dent of ferns worry about the troubles of the name- 

 tinker? All that is necessary in studying ferns is 

 to have a name for your plants that others will recog- 

 nize. By the new change of names, the marsh fern 

 becomes Thelypteris palustris, that is. if one chooses 

 to recognize the new combination. It may be said in 

 passing that Thelypteris is not entirely free from en- 

 tangling connections with other plants. It is surmised 

 that upon the basis of strict priority, this name should 

 be applied to the common bracken (Pteris). The 

 name was given to the bracken before 175:3, the date 

 from which all species are supposed to date, but there 

 are plenty of students that see no reason for accepting 

 this date and the time may yet come when Thelypteris 

 gets moved back to Pteris with consequent new troub- 

 les for both Pteris and the wood ferns whatever they 

 may happen to be called then. 



* * * 



While camping with a party of his students 

 among the sand dunes of northwestern Indiana, 

 the editor found, on May 30th, near Glen Park, 

 an abundance of a small Botryehium which is 

 evidently the form or species named simplex. 



