MAXON — STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 11 



Polypodium macrodon Hook. 



1 1 . L686. Panzal, Baja Verapaz, altitude 1,000 meters, April, 1907. 



II. J929. Cohan, altitude 1,350 meters, September, 1907. 



The type of this species is from the vicinity of Cuban, from which locality speci- 

 mens have been examined by the writer." Considerable additional material has 

 recently been received from Alta Verapaz. 



Polypodium minusculum Maxon, sp. now 



A small epiphytic plant with about Ci entire rigid stipitate deflexed spongiose- 

 coriaceous fronds, 6 to 9.5 cm. long; rhizome erect, 1 cm. or less high, about 3 mm. 

 in diameter, the crown clothed with numerous lanceolate yellowish brown scales 

 2 to 2.5 cm. long; stipe dull brownish, slender, wiry, less than 0.5 mm. in diameter, 

 2 to 3.5 cm. long, arcuate, thickly clothed with erect spreading reddish castaneous 

 hairs about 1 to 1.5 mm. long; lamina light or yellowish green, 4 to cm. long, about 

 0.8 to 1 cm. broad, oblanceolate, tapering in both directions, the apex obtuse or 

 subacute, the base acutely cuneate, both surfaces and the margins ciliate, the hairs 

 like those of the stipe but frequently longer, those of the surface sometimes attain- 

 ing a length of 2 mm.; margins entire or rarely somewhat sinuate; midvein con- 

 cealed, flexuose; veins 15 to 20 pairs, 4 or 5 times forked, wholly concealed in the 

 spongiose tissue, but easily apparent by transmitted light, the tissue then very trans- 

 lucent; sori superficial, orbicular or broadly oval, 1 to nearly 1.5 Jam. broad at 

 maturity, borne usually at or near the end of both the superior and inferior basal 

 branches (occasionally also upon the outer branches), thus disposed in two irregular 

 lines, one on each side of the midvein and mostly nearer to this than to the margin. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 579065, collected upon a tree trunk 

 in mountains near Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, at an altitude of 1,600 meters, 

 by Baron H. von Turckheim, no. II. 1987, November, 1907. Known only from 

 this collection. 



P. minusculum is a diminutive member of the group of P. trifurcatum and finds 

 its nearest ally in the Jamaican J', nesiotirum . From this it differs in its smaller 

 stature, short oblanceolate lamina.', more general hairy covering, nearly or quite 

 entire margins, concealed midvein, and in several less obvious characters. 



Polypodium. plebeium Cham. & Schlecht. 



11. 1256. Cohan, altitude 1,350 meters, June, 1907. Epiphytic. 



Polypodium polypodioides (L.) A. S. Hitchc. 



11. 2135. Coban, altitude 1,350 meters, February, 1908. 



II. 2213. Sasis, Alta Verapaz, altitude 1,000 meters, May, 1908. 



Polypodium productum Maxon, sp. now 



A slender wiry plant, with numerous close-set very narrow elongate deeply arcuate 

 simply pinnate fronds 20 to 35 cm. long; rhizome short-creeping, the apical portion 

 exposed and thickly covered with numerous light brown iridescent lanceolate diver- 

 gent scabs 3 to 3.5 mm. long, the apices long-attenuate, filiform, fragile, the cells 

 broad with greatly thickened blackish brown cell walls; stipe slender, about 0.5 mm. 

 in diameter, 2 to 3.5 cm. long, dull light brownish, with a close hispid covering of 

 jointed yellowish brown hairs, these mostly short, unequal, and irregularly spreading; 

 lamina very narrow, strongly arcuate or sometimes recurved, 18 to 32 cm. long, 12 to 

 15 mm. broad, comprising about 90 to 100 or more pairs of membrano-coriaceous trans- 

 lucent spaced glabrous pinna;, the 3 or 4 lowermost pairs evident only as very minute 

 triangular prominences upon the dull blackish brown hispid or glabrous rachis, those 

 above gradually (within a distance of 3 or 4 cm.) attaining the characteristic linear- 

 oblong form, the upper pinnae decreasing very gradually into a long regularly serrate 



aContr. Nat. Herb. 8: 275. 1903. 

 82464—09 2 



