IDarieties of tbe British ferns 
THESE have been described in 1859 in “ Nature-Printed British 
Ferns,” by Mr. Thomas Moore ; in “ Our Native Ferns,” in 1867, 
by the Author of this Handbook ; in 1876 to i$ 8 o, private/y (6 parts) 
in “Varieties of the British Species of Ferns,” nature-printed, by 
Colonel A. M. Jones ; in 1878, in “ Ferns of the English Lakes,” 
edited by Mr. J. M. Barnes ; and in 1888, in “Choice British 
Ferns,” by Mr. C. T. Druery. 
For elaborate descriptions the reader is referred to these works ; 
but the vast increase in our knowledge of this subject, during the 
last few years, has caused the earlier works to be out of date. 
Many varieties were unknown when they were written, and a 
number of unimportant forms have now to be rejected. The 
English Lakes are, of course, restricted to a prescribed area ; and 
Mr. Druery’s excellent “Choice British Ferns,” as the name im- 
plies, is limited to the most striking departures from the normal 
forms ; and even in extraordinary varieties there are many beau- 
tiful ferns that have been discovered during the past two years, and 
others that do not appear to have been known to Mr. Druery. 
For several reasons it is desirable to have a record up to the 
present time ; and the most powerful of these arguments is the 
confusion that exists. Allied varieties have been found by different 
persons, and such names as divisolobum, grandiceps, plumosum, 
polydactylum, cristatum, cruciatum, crispum, etc., have been used 
over and over again, sometimes with the additional name of the 
finder ; or, if showing distinct characters, one or two extra names 
have been added, until we have varieties that can boast of possess- 
ing three or four names, such, for example, as Aspidium angulare, 
variety decompositiun-viagnificum-polydactylum , and one or two 
even longer than this. A simple descriptive name of any marked 
character, such as plumosum, cristatum or crispum, is desirable, or 
even a compound name that will denote two marked characters 
like ramo-coronans, sagittato-projectum, or lineare-cristatum, may 
not be objected to ; but a cumbersome string of names cannot be 
tolerated, no matter how descriptive it may be ; in fact, a name is 
the symbol by which it is to be recognised, and is not intended to 
be a description. We can now, by crossing several varieties of 
ferns, produce all the characters on one frond, and several of these 
again crossed will give us their combined characters ; and this must 
prove the utter impossibility of a descriptive nomenclature. 
