34 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



The narrow and very long fronds (maximum GO cm.) and subquadranyular long- 

 aristate pinnae are very characteristic of this species which is known only from Cub;!. 

 The fronds of mature plants almost invariably bear young plants at the flagelliform 

 apex. 



10. Polystichum longipes Maxon, sp. nov. , Plate 6. 



Fronds 45 to 52 cm. long, nonproliferous, long-stipitate, stiff, coriaceous, probably 

 suberect in habit. Rhizome ascending, woody, stout, about 1 cm. or less in diameter, 

 the crown and stipe bases clothed with flaccid reddish brown scales, these lanceolate 

 to ovate, with tortuose linear fibrillose scales intermixed; stipes 20 to 30 cm. long, 

 stout, 1.5 to 2 mm. in diameter, light brown, very firm, terete, with a furrow alor.g 

 the anterior face, sparingly fibrillose, glabrate with age; lamina relatively short and 

 broad, 15 to 22.5 cm. long, 8 to 12 cm. broad, ovate to very broadly ovate, acuminate, 

 the rachis and lower surface of the pinna? sparsely fibrillose, glabrate with age; pinna? 

 7 to 10 pairs, spreading, very coriaceous, hastate, subhastate, or even auriculate, 

 unequally cuneate or the upper base subtruncatc, broadest near the base, otherwise 

 lanceolate, the margins undulate or lightly sinuose-crenate, the apices acute or some- 

 what attenuate; lowermost pinna? 5 to 7 cm. long, 1.5 to 2 cm. broad near the base, 

 petiolate, alternate or scarcely subopposite; pinna' immediately succeeding nearly of 

 the same size, alternate, distant; upper pinna- gradually smaller and closer, sessile, 

 in the sterile fronds reduced abruptly at thfe subcaudate acuminate apex, in the fertile 

 fronds decreasing more gradually, adnate; veins mostly 3 or 4 times branched, close 

 evident as striations on the lower surface; sori in a single row upon each side of the 

 midvein, much nearer the margin than the midvein and extending nearly to the 

 petiole. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 50221, collected in Cuba, without definite 

 locality, by Charles Wright, no. 3924. Specimens of the same number are in the 

 Ciray Herbarium, the D. C. Eaton Herbarium, the Sauvalle Herbarium, and the 

 herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 



The species is without any very close allies, standing rather apart from the other 

 members of the triangulum group. It was indicated by Eaton as doubtfully new. 



Explanation ok Plate «.— The type specimens. Scale about i. 

 11. Polystichum muricatum (L.) Fee, Gen. Fil. 278. 1850-1852. 

 Poh/poc&vm muricatum L. Sp. PI. 2: 1093. 1753, not Sw. 1788. 

 Aspidium muricatum Willd. Sp. PI. 5: 264. 1810. 



The oldest binary name applied to any tropical American member of the acu- 

 leatum alliance is that of the Polypodium muricatum of Linna?us, a species estab- 

 lished upon Petiver's plate 1, figure 6, this in turn a small copy of Plunder's plate 

 39, representing a plant from Santo Domingo. This or very closely allied forms 

 from the North and South American tropics have since received many names, and 

 the later synonymy is very involved. For the purposes of the present paper it is 

 sufficient to point out the availability of the name muricatum for the plant of the 

 West Indies, which is abundantly distinct from P. aculeatum. Kuhn," in taking up 

 the Linnrcan name for specimens from Santo Domingo, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, 

 and several South American countries, adduces many supposed synonyms and dis- 

 cusses the group critically at some length. Much of this material probably belongs 

 to other species. 



Polystichum muricatum is described briefly by Jenman,& who states that it is 

 common in Jamaica "on the banks of streams in forests at 4,000 to 6,000 feet alti- 

 tude." Plumier's figure, though exaggerated as to spinescent pinnules, is excellent 

 as to size, proportions, and general appearance. 



« Abhand. Nat. Gesell. Halle 11: 33 etseq. 1869. 



*> Bull. Hot. Dept. Jamaica II. 2: 270. 1895, as A. aculeatum moriuianum (Klotzsch). 



