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Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Pteridological Humor

Different species of ferns sometimes unite to produce sterile offspring, known as hybrids. John T. Mickel, How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies (Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown, 1979), p. 15, has this caption beneath a cartoon of ferns joining in marriage:
Do you Asplenium platyneuron take this Camptosorus rhizophyllus to be your unlawful hybridizing pteridophyte?
I corrected a couple of misprints -- the original has Camptosovus and ptevidophyte. I suspect that Mickel's handwritten r looks like v.