166 
ASPIDIACE.E. 
Although I have entertained some doubt as to the identity of 
the present plant with the Polypodium Lonchitis 
of Linneus, feeling a strong inclination to refer 
his original specimen (which is the very counter- 
part of that figured on the present page, fig. a), 
to the species next described, yet I have 
thought it unadvisable, in the absence of 
positive information on the subject, to in- 
terfere with a nomenclature now re- 
ceived throughout Europe. The genus 
Polystichum was established by Roth 
in his ‘Flora Germanica,’ in 1800, 
and is so far synonymous with Swartz’s 
genus Aspidium, published in the same 
year, that both included a long list of 
the same species ; still the genus As- 
pidium was so vague and so extensive 
as almost to vie in these respects with 
the genus Polypodium of Linneus, 
whereas Roth very suitably separated 
Cystopteris and Athyrium, and made 
no mention whatever of the extra-Eu- 
ropean species placed by Swartz at 
the head of his genus. Still even 
Roth’s genus is unmanageably large, 
and it becomes the duty of modern 
botanists to attempt subdivision with- 
out allowing either of the names pro- 
posed by these great botanists to be 
lost to science ; and all our most able 
filicologists agree in limiting the ge- 
