Proper Use of the Name Filix

Abstract

The older writers on plants had but a few fern names. Of the names used by them the name Filix was probably the most popular. It was ultimately used for many species of ferns, especially after European botanists began to study tropical ferns. In the early days, however, its use was very largely, if not entirely, confined to two very common and well known European ferns. One of these ferns was Filix mas or the male fern, and the other was Filix foemina or the female fern. And here let me say that the female fern of all writers before the time of Linnaeus as far as I have seen was the