Alice's fern

English Etymology Of unclear origin. Seemingly first mentioned in a letter written in November 1900 and published in January 1901 in Fern Bulletin, in which William R. Maxon describes its sale in Washington, DC, by "old negro women [...among whom] it goes altogether by the name of 'Alice's fern,' a new one, perhaps, to most fern students". In September 1901, her father's rise to the US presidency made Alice Roosevelt Longworth a celebrity and en Alice blue was named for her, but in 1900 she was not so prominent. Noun en American climbing fern (Lygodium palmatum species) Anagrams en aceefilnrs craneflies crane flies fire lances en eponyms