(3) 



®0Xwmljia WinimvsUvi in tTt^ ©its of ^cm ^oxli 



DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 



ly and clearly distinct from each other will be the opportunity for 



the restoration of many many species that the English have consigned 



i8( 



to synonymy* often without taking the trouble to cross the channel and 

 examine the types as in the case of Aleuritopteris Schaffneri Pournier 

 which I found Baker had distributed under no less than three genera in 

 the Kew Herbaroumi Pellaea cordata-intermedia-f lexuosa and the last 

 named are striking cases which are duplicated hundreds of times in the 

 Synopsis Pllicum#- 



As to the proof of the non^ybECidity of AspleniiM ebenoides I ^ 

 do not know as you will deem^ sufficient as stated in my paper (of which 

 I have just road the proof) but you could not look upon that display of 

 the species at Havana glen and think for a moment that it was a hybrid. 

 In fact the burden of proof rests on the other side foriomebody sugges* 

 ted that it might be a hybrid and we have fallen into the line and con- 

 tinued to think it must be so. Heither of the two ancestors are coimnon 

 in the glen while A.ebenoides is. New or yotmg plants of the ebenoides 

 are abundant. The species has a habit utterly different from either of 

 its ancestors— it grows way under the overhanging cliffs in daek crev- 

 ices ,never in the open like both A.platyneuron and Caraptosorusi It 

 seems to be the headquarters of the fern at Havana, so far as we know 

 at present while the other scattering places vrhere it has been found 

 are merely straggling outliers^ I am more and more imiaressed with the 

 necessity of seeing things in their native haunts and feel grateful for 

 the opportmiitles v/hich have permitted me to see nearly two thirds of 

 oia native ferns in their native haunt si- 



I think you fail to catch the spirit 6f the Illustrated flora 



