266 
ASPLENTACE.E. 
observe a British specimen in the Smithian herbarium, although 
I quite understand Smith as saying he received it from Dickson. 
It appears to be nowhere common on the continent, but has . 
been found here and there on rocks and walls in Sweden, Hun- 
gary, Germany, France and Italy. Beyond the limits of Europe 
I am unable to trace its range. 
There is a beautiful figure of this fern in Jac quin’s ‘ Miscel- 
lany,’^ accompanied by a description by Wulfen ; those in Sow- 
erby’s ‘ English Botany ’ f and Mr. Francis’s ^ Analysis ’ are 
not so good. 
Concerning the name of this fern there appears a variety of 
opinions. It is the Asplenium germanicum of Weiss, published 
in his ‘ Plantae Cryptogamicae,’J in 1770, and adopted by Spren- 
gel, Willdenow, Hoffmann, Decandolle and Sadler, so that, be- 
sides having the claim of priority, this is the current name on 
the continent of Europe. It is the Asplenium alternifolium of 
Wulfen, published in Jacquin’s ‘ Miscellany,’ in 1781, as above 
cited, and adopted by Roth, Withering, Smith, Hooker, Francis 
and Babington. It is the Asplenium Breynii of Retz,§ pub- 
lished subsequently to 1772, but I cannot learn the exact date, 
and adopted by Weber and Mohr, and Swartz. Sir J. E. Smith, 
in justification of his adopting the later name of alternifolium, 
writes thus. — ‘‘The nomenclature of this species, a native not 
only of Germany, but of Switzerland, Sweden and Scotland, 
evinces the folly of specific names taken from any particular 
country, but more especially the still greater folly of restoring 
old names which had been laid aside on accoun t of their badness, 
and long since forgotten.” || I join with Hoffmann, Willdenow 
and Decandolle, in deserving this reproach, and adopt the name, 
as they do, supposing it to possess the claim of priority ; not that 
I constitute myself a judge of its quality. If authors generally 
held themselves justified in selecting names by their goodness 
or badness, we must bid a long farewell to all hopes of a 
uniform nomenclature : the very suggestion seems to me to be 
fraught with danger to the science. 
* Jacq. Misc. ii. tab. v. fig. 2, p. 51 . f Eng. Bot. 2258. 
+ Plant. Crypt. 299. § Obs. Bot. fasc. 1 , p. 32. 
jj Eng. Flor. iv. 296. 
