—55— 



where the types of Fee, Hooker, Mettenius and others are stored, 

 and, what is. sometimes even of greater importance, a much wider 

 array of exotic material can be studied. Pteris lanuginosa Bory 

 was a name given to a fern found in Mauritius. Just what this 

 fern is, is not clearly known ; but it is certain that it has nothing 

 to do with the pubescent brake of Western America; this form, 

 therefore, be it variety or species, cannot bear the name lanugi- 

 nosa, and I have abandoned this name in the sixth edition of my 

 fern book now in press. Likewise under the name Pteris caudata 

 Linnaeus confused two things, both from tropical America, and 

 American collections have not yet satisfied me to what form the 

 name properly applies. I have therefore left it in statu quo until 

 it can be more certainly determined. Pteris esculenta, which is 

 referred as a synonym to P. caudata, was based on an Australian 

 thing and may (or more likely may not) be the same plant that has 

 been called P. esculenta from the American tropics. Undoubt- 

 edly Pteris aquilina is a composite species, but the full study of 

 a group distributed from Australia to Sweden and from Cape Horn 

 to Labrador and Alaska involves more difficulty of elucidation 

 than might at first seem; it is not a question that can be finally 

 settled in America alone; every careful study of our plants, their 

 exact definition and distribution, contributes to their final elucid- 

 ation, and I am glad the editor has given us this contribution. 

 Columbia University, 25 May, igoo. 



[The editor does not wish to be understood as having at- 

 tempted to sort out bracken nomenclature; that is so well tangled 

 up that it is doubtful whether any botanist can straighten it out 

 in a way satisfactory to the rest. What he did attempt was to 

 separate the forms in North America and define their ranges. 

 Having passed through thousands of acres covered with the so- 

 called variety caudata, it needed no further array of foreign 

 material to show him that the plant is quite distinct from P. 

 aquilina of Eastern America in both habit and shape. He was 

 therefore moved to give the commonly accepted name to this 

 plant until others shall have worried an interpretation out of Old 

 Linnaeus. — Ed.] 



— In the Churchman for May 5th Mr. C. F. Saunders has a very 

 entertaining and instructive article upon " The Ferns' Poor Rela- 

 tions," which treats of the Club-mosses, Scouring-rushes, etc. Six 

 excellent illustrations by Miss E. M. Hallowell accompany the 

 article. 



