stations more than three thousand miles apart. If our American 

 fern is to have a new name at all, surely it should be a trinomial 

 as Osmunda regalis spectabilis. Osmunda rcgalis may then be 

 taken to represent the species and spectabilis to stand for a 

 lighter shade of color and a fraction of a millimeter less in the 

 thickness of the leaves. 



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 * 



Through all the changes that have been made in fern names 

 we have felt pretty sure of the names of three species — Osmunda 

 rcgalis. Poly podium vulgavc and Ptcris aquilina; others might 

 change, but these so abundant, so distinct, so common as to be 

 known to every botanist on both sides of the Atlantic, seemed 

 to wave defiance to the species makers with every passing breeze. 

 But alas for human ideas of stability ! Two of these are already 

 doomed and the other is probably trembling in the balance. In 

 some accounts it is said that the fronds of the British polypody 

 wither at the approach of winter ; the fronds of ours do not and 

 of course it must be a distinct species — at least we offer this 

 tip to the species makers. But it is not the polypody that is re- 

 ferred to as doomed, but the bracken. In the same number of 

 Torreya our bracken is spoken of as Ptcris latiuscula, for the 

 experts have decided that this is not the Old World fern. But 

 if it is not, why, oh why did not those acute botanists of other 

 days settle the matter for all time instead of allowing it to be 

 bandied about "from pillar to post" in these strenuous times? 

 For be it known that this poor species has had trouble on both 

 sides. First, its generic name was tampered with and now the 

 specific gets its turn. Truly, certain phases of'botany move with 

 great rapidity even if they do not get anywhere. Things have 

 actually come to such a pass that the common name of a plant 

 has greater stability than the scientific ones and is known much 

 further. 



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* 



There is a certain very common form of the bracken in the 

 Southern States that extends northward along the coast to Long 

 Island which, until recently, was called caudata, being confused 

 with the true Ptcris caudata of the tropics. It is not the true 

 caudata, however, but is connected to the common bracken by 



