—8 4 - 



Polynomial Ferns. — Linnaeus conferred unending 

 benefit upon all students of nature by firmly establishing 

 the momenclature of plants and animals upon a binomial 

 system. He found botanical names a medley of adjec- 

 tives and nouns; he left them in an orderly arrangement 

 of genus and species. Since his time, however, we have 

 been distinguishing varieties, forms and subforms until 

 the names of some of the latter strongly remind one of 

 pre-Linnaean botany. We are again reminded of this 

 by a notice that at a recent meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society of London a certificate was awarded to 

 Polystichum aculeatum pulcherrimum Drearyi. The 

 note further says that " the fern bears no resemblance to 

 any other British fern." It certainly ought not to, with 

 a name like that. It may be added, however, that the 

 British are not the only sinners in this direction. It 

 seems possible that some way might be devised to avoid 

 more than three words in the scientific name. 



The Tubers of Nephrolepis. — Any one who has 

 grown Nephrolepis cordifolia for any length of time 

 must have noticed the potato-like objects to be found 

 on the underground parts of the plant. According to 

 Prof. J. W. Harshberger, who spoke of the matter some 

 forms of the crest fern (N. Cristatum) and that these 

 outgrowths are borne on underground branches and 

 are properly tubers. Most, if not all, the tubers with 

 which we are familiar are storehouses of food, but the 

 tubers of Nephrolepis are composed of thin-walled cells 

 filled with water and are therefore more in the nature 

 of cisterns than storehouses. Water, however, is as 

 much a plant food as is starch, so these tubers, after all, 

 act as food storage organs. The reason they contain 

 water instead of starch is probably due to the fact that 

 A r . Cordifolia is an epiphyte and therefore more subject 

 to drouth than many other plants. The habit of produc- 

 ing these tubers is common to several species of the 

 genus, notably N. tuber osa, N. Philip pinensis, N. pluma, 



