MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 47 
pair and succeeding veins once-forked close to the sinus, the branches divergent, 
distant, soriferous above their middle; sori rather small, adjacent (sometimes con- 
tiguous with age), forming a distinctly supramedial line extending one-half to two- 
thirds the distance to the apex (rarely to the apex) and downward toa point on the costal 
wing about equidistant between the costa and the sinus, indusium grayish brown, 
semicircular or dimidiate, subentire to crenately lobed, shallow; receptacle globose, 
squamulose-setiferous; leaf tissue rigidly herbaceous, dark green above, lighter below, 
lustrous on both surfaces. 
Type Locatiry: ‘Habitat in Antilles.” 
DisrriputTion: Apparently confined to Grenada and St. Vincent. 
The present species has been misidentified with nearly as much frequency as has 
H. grandifolia (and usually under that name), although Kaulfuss’s description is 
definite enough. In addition to Kaulfuss’s original plant Presl cites specimens col- 
lected by Guilding in St. Vincent, in which on the basis of material at hand he is 
probably correct. Grenada specimens collected by Eggers (no. 6035) were first 
determined by Christ as 1. grandifolia, but were subsequently made the type of his 
new species H. bullata. They are perfectly typical examples of H. obtusa, as here 
understood. In leaf outline and venation //. obtusa resembles H. kohautiana rather 
closely; but it is strikingly different in its fewer and distinctly brownish scales of the 
under surface and in its almost nonpaleaceous, smoothish, and yellowish pubescent 
rachises.! 
The following specimens have been examined: 
Sr. Vincent: H. H. & G. W. Smith 854, 1715; Eggers 6731. 
GRENADA: Eggers 6035; Sherring; Broadway. 
DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 
1. Hemrrevta cructata Desv. Mém. Soe. Linn. Paris 6: 320, 1827. 
The original description is as follows: 
“Pinnis oppositis, sessilibus, lineari-lanceolatis subacuminatis, patentibus, pro- 
funde crenatis: laciniis subimbricatis incurvis, obtusisque apici latere acutiusculis 
obscure denticulatis: costis rachique nudis; caudice arborescente? 
“Habitat in America calidiori. Media inter H. grandifoliam et speciosam.”’ 
An excellent photograph of the type specimen, which is preserved in the Muséum 
d’Histoire Naturelle at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, indicates a species at least very 
closely allied to that here recognized under the name H. spectabilis Kunze. In the 
shape of its pinnee and in venation the specimen appears to agree with the Trinidad 
plants here cited under H. spectabilis and to differ only in its subimbricate segments. 
Without a direct comparison of the specimen itself with J. spectabilis it appears 
inadvisable to substitute the earlier name; but it is more than likely that the two 
relate to phases of the same species. At any rate its relationship is clearly with H. 
spectabilis, as here understood. 
9. HEMISTEGIA ELEGANTISSIMA I’ée, Mém.Foug, 8: 110. 1857. 
Founded upon a Mexican specimen collected by Linden, without number; not 
itlentified by the writer. The description, brief though it is, does not accord with 
any of the species here recognized. 
1The plant figured by Hooker, Sp. Fil. 1: pl. 14 A. as H. obtusa is neither H. 
obtusa nor any species closely related to it. The illustration agrees exactly with the 
Trinidad material here taken up under the name J/7. spectabilis, but it does not show 
any secondary areoles (i. e., along the costules of the segments). This, however, is 
not a constant feature of that species and is only observed here and there. See under 
H. spectabilis. 
