52 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Lamina of sterile fronds lanceolate to oval-lanceolate, membra- 
nous or membrano-chartaceous, 2 to 4 times as large, one 
or both sides bearing minute scattered suborbicular to 
ovate scales; fertile fronds not plicate. 
Fertile fronds 3 to 4mm. broad, long-stipitate, the stipe 3 to 
5 cm. long; sterile fronds oval-lanceolate, 6 to 9 cm. 
long; 2 to3cm. broad .........22...-.-2220------ 1. P. wiesbaurit. 
Fertile fronds 4 to 5 mm. broad, short-stipitate, the stipe | 
to 1.5 em, long; sterile fronds lanceolate, 8 to 13 cm. 
long; 2.2 to 3.8 em, broad..............--..-.-.-... 3. P. underwoodiana. 
TWO UNUSUAL FORMS OF DICRANOPTERIS. 
Under the head of ‘‘ Doubtful or Extralimital Species” the writer, 
in treating recently the North American species of Dicranopteris,' 
made mention of two peculiar forms as follows: 
Mertensia gleichenioides Liebm. Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. V. 1: 296. 1849. (Gleichenia 
lieéhbmanni Moore, Index Fil. 379. 1862.) A remarkable form, accurately described 
by Liebmann from specimens collected by him near Cuaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico, and 
apparently not since collected. In general appearance the specimens differ widely 
from the usual type of Dicranopteris in the direction of Gleichenia, but not in venation 
and other characters. In minute characters they appear to represent a species not 
otherwise knowr, but in gross morphology the plant is almost certainly atypical and 
possibly indicates a reversion toward a general ancestral form, Plants similar in form, 
but very different in vestiture, have been collected in Jamaica by Professor Under- 
wood and the writer; these were growing with D. bifida, and from their minute characters 
must be reckoned a form of that species. 
The present note is for the purpose of directing further attention 
to the peculiar morphology of these plants. 
Plate 29 represents at about two-fifths natural size the Jamaican 
plants referred to (Mazon 936). They were collected by the writer 
in company with Prof. L. M. Underwood upon the dryish, brushy 
slopes of an abandoned coffee plantation, altitude about 750 meters, 
above Tweedside, which is near Mount Moses, in the Blue Mountains. 
Surrounding them upon all sides was a typical growth of the common 
tropical American species called Dicranopteris fulva (Desv.) by Doctor 
Underwood ? and recently redescribed * by the writer under an earlier 
species name as D. bifida (Willd.) Maxon. The unusual interest 
attaching to these specimens was perhaps not fully appreciated at 
the time; at any rate nothing was noted beyond the fact that they 
covered an area of only a few square feet in the midst of normal 
D. bifida. Plants of similar form were not encountered elsewhere 
in Jamaica, although D. bifida is the commonest species of the genus 
at mid-elevations. In minute characters the specimens are evidently 
identical with ordinary D. bifida, which in its several forms is one of 
the most readily recognized species of the genus in North America, its 
'N. Amer. Flora 16!: 53-63. 1909. 3N. Amer. Flora 16!: 60. 1909. 
? Bull. Torrey Club 34: 255. 1907. 
