44 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



mittSj Antrophyum, Poly podium, Asplenium, Acrosti- 

 chum and many other genera have species with leaf 

 outlines that almost exactly match it, but a glance at 

 the fruiting fronds, at once excludes many of these 

 genera as possible harbors for the species and at the 

 same time increases the difficulties of finally placing it. 

 The sori are apparently linear and Scolopendrium or 

 Asplenium comes to mind, but there is no indusium 

 and so the relationship is thrown into that group of 

 ferns clustering about such forms as Gymnogramma. 



In fact, our fern was for a long time known as 

 Gymnogramma lanceolata and owing to this fact I 

 have selected this to stand as the name of the plant. A 

 glance at the illustration, however, will disclose a 

 frond not at all like the conventional Gymnogramma 

 frond, but it is as much like a Gymnogramma as it is 

 like the family to which the plant is now assigned. 

 Curious as it may seem this plant with elongated sori 

 oblique to the midrib is now regarded as a Poly- 

 p odium! Before its settling down in this genus, it 

 had been placed in Antrophyum, Grammitis, Loxo- 

 gramme and Selliguea as well as Gymnogramma. 

 This is by no means due to the variable nature of the 

 fern. Through all these vicissitudes it has remained 

 unchanged. The fluctuations from one genius to an- 

 other even from one tribe to a different one, have been 

 due to the varying opinions of mere man and his ef- 

 forts to fit the fern to a set of descriptions of his own 

 making. Circumstances such as these are quite suf- 

 ficient to justify the refusal to accept off-hand the 

 results of every "revision" which ambitious systema- 

 tists see fit to inflict upon us. 



While reposing in the g*enus Gymnogramma, the 

 fern was well-known to be somewhat unorthodox. In 

 every large assemblage of species there are, in ad- 



