New Zealand Ferns 
11 
Twenty years later I was again in Picton. Remember- 
ing my former experience, I looked out for the musk — • 
it was gone! Only after a careful search along the edge 
of the swamp did I find a solitary plant — and there had 
formerly been hundreds of acres ! 
NOMENCLATURE 
Several attempts have been made to find popular 
names for the New Zealand ferns. Mr. T. W. Potts 
went into the question whole-heartedly. No matter how 
uncouth or crabbed the scientific names, he roped them 
all in. Gleichenia became “Tangle-fern”; Asplenium 
flaccidum, “Planging-tree Spleenwort” (I prefer Miss 
Pules’ “Feeble Spleenwort”) ; Nephrodium hispidum, 
“Hairy Boss-fern”; Nothochlaena distans, “Woolly- 
cloak Fern” (one of the best) ; Schizaca fistulosa, “Slen- 
der Comb-fern”; Lygodium articulatum, “Climbing- 
string Fern”; Loxsoma seems to have floored him; he 
could do nothing better than “Loxsoma-fern.” The 
quaintest I keep to the last, Adiantum hispidulum, 
“Hairy Maidenhair” (the inclination to drop the last 
syllable is irresistible). 
Mr. H. C. Field also tried his hand, but with more 
restraint. Adiantum formosum, “Plumed Maidenhair” ; 
Adiantum aethiopiciim, “African Maidenhair” (I fancy 
it will always be called “The True Maidenhair”) ; Ptcris 
tremula, “Scented Fern” (surely this is more applicable 
to P. scabenila?) . When he calls Nephrodium veluti- 
num , one of our most beautiful species, “Dirty-fern,” it 
makes my gorge rise. 
With names, as with species, I fancy it will be a case 
of the survival of the fittest. If Mr. Potts’ “Woolly- 
cloak Fern,” Miss Pules’ “Feeble Spleenwort,” and Mr. 
Field’s “Plumed Maidenhair” survive, they have each 
done something to be proud of. 
Four of the Maori names — the natives distinguished 
only a few of the species — may persist. Cyathca rncdid- 
laris, “Mamaku or Korau”; Cyathca dealbata, “Ponga”; 
