498 contribtjtio:n's from the national heebarium. 



from Martinique. It is, on tins busis, a spocios nulvnuwii to tlio writer nnd is 



T 



perhaps still to be i-ediscovered. 



Dryopteris johnstoni Maxon, sp. nov. 



Fronds few, SO to 00 cm. long, borne closely from a slender creej^ing woody 

 rhizome 5 to 7 nun. thiclv bearhig a few stout cordlike roots about 1 mm, in 

 diameter; stipes 55 to GO cm* long, in color dull yellowish, somewliat polished 

 beneath a minute inconspicuous stellate pubescence, quadrangular and deeply 

 sulcate in drying, bearing at the base a few yellowish brown, ovate or oblong- 

 ovate scales which are noticeably stellate-pubescent; lamina glabrate, broadly 

 deltoid, 27.5 to 29 cm. long, 20 to 24 cm. broad, 10 to 12-jugate, decreasing 

 ratlier abruptly toward the apex into a narrow elongate terminal cauda to 

 It cm. long, deeply pinnatifld below, the apex entire; rachis relatively slight, 

 subflexuose; pinna} oi)posite or very nearly so, subcoriaccous, sessile, linear- 

 lanceolate, caudate, the midvein elevated, especially below, with a few short 

 ]ninnte simple hairs, veins apparent; the l*)wermost pinme 11 to 11 cm. long, 

 1.5 to 2.2 cm. broad, strongly detiexed, greatly reduced at the base (particularly 

 on the lower side), broadest in the middle, uniformly lobed one-half the dis- 

 tance to the rachis or slightly more, the apex long-attenuate, entire, the lobes 

 close, about 20 pairs, sliglitly oblique, subfalcate, rounded, those of the lower 

 side largest (l.f> nun. broad), with 9 or 10 pairs of simple veinlets of which 

 conmionly only the two lowermost pairs extend to the sinus; succeeding pinme 

 similar, differing nminly in the smaller size, shallower lobes and less reduced 

 bases of the pinna>, the middle and upper pinnae being broadest at the base 

 and decidedly falcate toward the extremity; sori of the larger (inferior) lobes 

 about 9 pairs, relatively large, medial or nearly so; indusia tirm, reddish, even- 

 tually deciduous, bearing numerous simple whitish hairs mostly at the margin. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 532013; collected at an altitude of 

 450 meters on the Juan Griego trail, Island of Margarita, Venezuela, July 22, 

 1903, by J. R. Johnston (no. 192). 



Known also from Trinidad, as shown by a specimen from the Jenman her- 

 barium (U. S. National Herbarium, no. 42S910), and a second sheet representing 

 Fendler's no. 54 (U. S. National Herbarium, no. 50241), the latter bearing the 

 following note attributed to D. C. Eaton: "Perhaps the ycphrodium drflexum 

 J. Smith, referred to in [Hoolcer and Baker's] Syn. Fil. p. 292." The reference 

 is to a note by Mr. Baker, under Nephrodlum rcfractum Hook., as follows: **A 

 Fern gathered in Trinidad by Aldridge, N. dcflcxum, J. Sm, MSS., has sinularly 

 deflected pinnje, but they are narrower, and the lobes rc^ach halfway down to 

 the midrib." This description, if it may be called such, applies to the plant in 

 hand; but Smith*s name is invalidated by Nephrodlum dcflcxum Presl, 1825. 



The relationship of D. johnstoni is not with D. rcfrncfa (Fisch. & Meyer) 

 Kuntze, which, as represented by several specimens in the National Herbarium, 

 is of the section Cyclosorus. In gross characters it may bo compared rather 

 with D. faJciculata (Raddi) Kuntze, from Brazil, the West Indian Z>. pyrami- 

 data (Fte) Maxon, and the British Guianan D, Jatntsctila Maxon. Z). falci- 

 eulata is a plant with delicate herbaceous ovate fronds, very deeply cut non- 

 caudate glandular pinnae, spaced segments, etc. D, pyramidata and D. Jati- 

 v^cnJa differ in their broader scarcely caudate piima,*, noncaudate apex and 

 marked pubescence, and in having the lower pinna^ not deflected. 



Bryopteris latiuscula Maxon, sp. nov. 



Aspidlum {Nephrodlum) u^ardiamnn Jenman, in herb. Not Aspidium wardil 

 Kuhn, 1879=N ephrodhnn nnrdn Baker, ^81 4:^ Dryopteris wardii Kuntze, 



1891. 

 Rhizome lacking; stipes 35 cm. long, light brownish, stout, deeply and irregu- 

 larly sulcate, with a thick scurfy covering of minute whitish stellate hairs 



