—Go- 



must be taken to the statement of Mr. Parish in the last number 

 of the Fern Bulletin (p. 40) that Polypodium scouleri alone of 

 the Pacific coast ferns grows upon the "mossy trunks of trees." 

 Mounted on a sheet with specimens of P. J "alcatum I find in the D. 

 C. Eaton herbarium the following note addressed to Professor 

 Eaton, under date of January 2, 1885, by Miss Jennie R. Bush of 

 San Jose, California: 



" With this I take the liberty of sending to you a species of 

 fern gathered by the school children from the trees near the school 

 house at Garberville, Humboldt County, Cal. I suppose you may 

 have the same. The interesting point to me was the fact of its 

 edibility when roasted. The children call it "licorice." Raw it 

 tastes much like the " ground-nut," but sweeter; when roasted, it 

 (the "roots" of course) tastes like a very sweet fine-grained sweet 

 potato. It grows in the moss on oaks, madrones, and other moss- 

 covered trees — not in the "gray moss" — and adds a remarkable 

 graceful beauty to the forests along the river in that part of Hum. 

 boldt County." 



In the same herbarium is another sheet of specimens col- 

 lected by A. V. Kautz in 1855 at Port Orford, Oregon, with the 

 following note: "Grows upon maple trees most abundantly, but 

 sometimes is found on the cedar, fir and other trees. Roots used 

 as an emolient and expectorant; taste resembles licorice." Several 

 other sheets in the Eaton and National Herbaria give the habitat 

 as "on trees," thus substantiating the two very specific state- 

 ments here recorded. " Licorice fern" is given by Lawson* as a 

 common name for this species, but the licorice-like taste is char- 

 acteristic of most, is not all, of the western polypodies. Indeed, 

 the rootstock of P. hesperium is so intensely sweet as to be al- 

 most nauseating. 



Scientific Name of the Silvery Spleenwort. The follow- 

 ing is a correction of the synonymy for this species as given in my 

 recent paper in Volume XXIII of the Proceedings of the U. S. 

 National Museum: Athrium acrostichoides (Sw. ) Maxon, comb, 

 nov. — Asplenium acrostichoides Sw. Schrad. Journ. Bot. 1800 2 : 

 54. 1801. — Asplenium thelypteroides Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2 : 265. 

 1803. — Athyrium thelypteroides Desv. Mem. Linn. Soc. Paris 6: 

 266. 1827. 



Swartz's original description is seemingly inadequate, and if 

 his specific name were to rest on this alone we would hardly be 

 *Fern Fl. Canada L25]. i88g. 



