THE LADY FERN. 5 
separate them from the normal Aspleniums ; and we have no right 
whatever to restrict the genus to the Filix.femina or abnormal 
group, because that would be a palpable perversion of the author's 
meaning and intention.” 
We do not for ourselves discover confusion in the fact that 
successive authors have referred the Lady Fern to different genera, 
but regard the changes which from time to time have taken place, 
as the result of the progress which has steadily but surely been made 
in the knowledge of Ferns during the present century: the change 
` in cach case indicating a step in advance. We do not find authors 
of the present day referring the Lady Fern to Polypodium ; and the 
fact of its having been so referred formerly is merely indicative of 
the general state of pteridology at the beginning of the present 
century. Roth's name was, indeed, proposed about the same date, 
but it did not come to be at all generally adopted, until the leaven 
of increasing knowledge had spread amongst the students of Ferns. 
The genus Athyrium, though. sometimes even now regarded by 
botanists as one of doubtful character, need not be so considered, on - 
the grounds above referred to, namely, that Roth's typical species is 
Asplenium fontanum, and that we have no right to restrict the genus 
to the “ Filix-femina or abnormal group ;” for it is quite clear that 
the fact of Asplenium fontanum occurring first in Roth's enumeration 
of the species, is purely the accident of its being the smallest and 
the simplest of the forms he proposed to bring together, and does 
not constitute it the type of the genus, inasmuch as Roth, in his 
generic character, expressly states of the indusium, “margine 
laciniato-fimbriatum,” which character belongs specially to the 
Filiz-femina group, and does not at all apply to A. fontanum. There 
need be no hesitation, therefore, about restricting Roth's Athyrium 
within the limits to which he himself points, and thus identifying 
it with the Lady Fern. It is by taking a more comprehensive view, 
that the genus may be thought of doubtful value. Both Presl and 
Fée, as already intimated, unite Allantodia and Athyrium, under 
the latter name, and characterise the group mainly by the short 
oblong gibbous sori, and vaulted indusia, but these marks pass 
insensibly into those of Asplenium, and are insufficient to distinguish 
the group thus indicated: while the character afforded by the 


