Notes on North American Ferns

Abstract

Asplenium platyneuron B.S.P. Prel. Cat. Anth. Pterid. 3. 1888. The combining authority for this species usually is cited as ex D. C. Eaton. Dr. Stephen Smith (pers. comm.) has pointed out to me that Eaton (1878, p. 21) accepted A. ebeneum Ait. as the correct name for the Brown-stem Spleenwort. He wrote, the Linnaean name for the present fern is unquestionably the oldest, it is scarcely probable that those authors who are disposed to insist upon an inflexible law of priority will attempt to replace the name which has been accepted by nearly all botanists for nearly a century by one so utterly inappropriate as platyneuron. Yet, lest they should do so, it may be worth while to note that this fern was named Asplenium plaltneuron by the late Mr. Oakes of Ipswich, in a marginal note in a copy of the old 'Flora Virginica,' now in my possession. Therefore, the combination attributed to Eaton clearly is a ntomen provisorimn. Despite Eaton's publication of the combination, the earlier epithet platyneulron did not displace the more familiar ebeneium with any regularity for about twenty years. The impetus for change was provided by Underwood in Britton and Brown (1896, p. 23), who made the transfer properly and cited the basionym and Aiton's name in synonymy. However, Underwood is antedated by Britton, Sterns, and Poggenburg, who cited the species as A.splenliuln (A. ebelnelim, Ait.). Although they did not cite a literature reference, platyneuron, (L.) must be considered a valid indirect reference. Therefore, the correct combining authors apparently are B.S.P., unless the combination was made validly in some obscure local Flora published between January 1878 and 25 April 1888. One would have thought that Underwood, being a fern specialist, would have made the combination prior to Britton, but such is not the case. At the time Britton, Sterns, and Poggenburg made the combination, Underwood (1888, p. 104) maintained the epithet ebeneun; he did not adopt platyneuron in his writings until five years later (Underwood, 1893, p. 104).