MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 51 
“Euphegopteris” of Polypodium. Christensen, supposing it from this incomplete 
description and wrong generic position to be a Dryopteris, transferred it to that genus 
as D. sauvallei, the new species name being necessary in Dryopteris because of an 
earlier D. wrightti of Kuntze (1891). Subsequently he examined specimens at Stock- 
holm, and noting their true affinity, called them Polystichum wrightti, aname which must 
take precedence over P. longipes, published in ignorance of Baker’s diagnosis. 
THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF PTEROPSIS. 
In publishing the new genus Ananthacorus several years ago! 
the writer indicated briefly the grounds upon which the generic name 
Pteropsis (Desvaux, 1827) should be taken up to replace Drymo- 
glossum (Presl, 1836). Two species of this genus have been known 
previously from America, one from Ecuador, the other from Mar- 
tinique. A third, from Costa Rica, was detected by Dr. L. M. Under- 
wood in 1904, but apparently never named or described by him. 
The three species are: 
1. Pteropsis wiesbaurii (Sodiro) Maxon. 
Drymoglossum wiesbaurii Sodiro, Vasc. Crypt. Quit. 419. 1893. 
Known only from Ecuador, the type being from tree trunks along the Rio Chimbo, 
altitude 300 to 500 meters. 
2. Pteropsis martinicensis (Christ) Maxon. 
Drymoglossum martinicense Christ, Bot. Jahrb. Engler 24: 137. 1897. 
Apparently confined to Martinique; the original specimens from trees and rocks 
near Vauclin, Duss 250b. 
3. Pteropsis underwoodiana Maxon, sp. nov. PLATE 28. 
Rhizome sarmentose, very slender, about 1 mm. in diameter, sparingly paleaceous, 
the scales subappressed, grayish, about 1 to 1.5 mm. long, linear-oblong to oblong- 
ovate, acute, minutely erose, membranous, with thin cell walls. Sterile fronds sessile, 
lanceolate, acuminate, 8 to 13 cm. long, 2.2 to3.8 cm. broad above the broadly cuneate, 
usually equilateral base, strongly costate, the stramineous midvein and slender irreg- 
ularly reticulate veins elevated and evident upon both sides throughout; leaf tissue 
firmly membrano-chartaceous, inconspicuously whitish-glandular above, bearing 
upon both surfaces numerous but distant minute punctiform ovate to suborbicular 
scales, these centrally peltate, with narrowly erose-fimbriate whitish margins. Fertile 
fronds 9 to 11 cm, long, short-stipitate, the stipe (1 to 1.5 cm. long) stout, appressed- 
paleaceous, the lamina linear, narrowly long-cuneate, 8 to 9cm. long, 4 to 5 mm. broad; 
sporangia arising in a dense line about midway between the costa and margin, spreading 
to the margin and at maturity almost completely obscuring the costa below the short 
linear-cuspidate apex. 
Type in the U.S. National Herbarium, no. 827444, collected near Suerre, Llanuras 
de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, altitude 300 meters, February, 1896, by John Donnell 
Smith, no. 6941; distributed as “ Acrostichum amygdalifolium Mett.’’ There are speci- 
mens of the same number in the Underwood Fern Herbarium, New York Botanical 
Garden. 
The American species may be distinguished by the following key: 
Lamina of sterile fronds obovate, coriaceous, about 3 cm. long, 1 
cm. broad, densely covered with minute appressed stel- 
late scales; fertile fronds plicate...............2........ 2. P. martinicensis. 
1 Contr, Nat. Herb. 10: 486. 1908. 
32870°—-12 —-3 
