54 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
strengthened by their separate occurrence in regions far apart. 
Minor variations in form, size, and vestiture of the segments, in the 
highly complex scheme of branching, and in the production of seg- 
ments upon the internodes of the lateral branches—all of these 
being features observed commonly in the field—seem to indicate that 
the species of this genus are in a more or less unstable state; and 
this renders the more significant so pronounced a departure from the 
normal form. Members of this family are said to be difficult of culti- 
vation, which, together with the usual incompleteness of herbarium 
material, may account for the scant attention they have received. 
Nevertheless, the group is one of the greatest interest and one which, 
in the writer’s opinion, would well repay critical investigation of the 
living plants, more especially a comparative study of those species 
showing radically diverse methods of branching. Following such a 
study it is not unlikely that Dicranopteris, instead of being again 
merged in Gleichenia, will itself be subdivided into several genera. 
THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF CIBOTIUM. 
In working over Cibotium for the forthcoming second part of 
volume 16 (Pteridophyta) of the North American Flora, it has been 
found that the American species have, if anything, been more fre- 
quently misidentified than the Old World material of the genus. The 
main reason for this appears to be that no one has given the American 
species careful attention. Thus, Kuhn properly distinguished two 
new species, C. guatemalense and C. wendlandi, in 1869, but failed to 
point out that Hooker’s illustration of “‘ Cibotium schiedei,” plate 30A 
of the Species Filicum, really pertained to one of these, C. wendlandi. 
The confusion attending the illustration of C. regale, itself a valid 
species, is explained farther on, under that species. As a matter of 
fact the material available at any one herbarium is probably scant; 
and the distinctive points of difference among the several species, if 
evident to individual students, have at least never been pointed out. 
Full descriptions of the four species already mentioned will appear 
shortly. In the meantime illustrations of these, with the notes here 
given by way of comparison, may be helpful. The Cibotiwm horridum 
of Liebmann is found not to belong to this genus or its tribe. 
The genus Cibotium of Kaulfuss is often credited to his Enumeratio 
Filicum (1824). It was, however, published! four years earlier in a 
little pharmaceutical journal, the only file of which known to the 
writer is that in the Library of the Surgeon General, in the Army 
Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. The original description is as 
follows: 
“Die Fruchthaufen sind in gewélbten, an einem Punkte auf der Unterseite des 
Laubes befestigten, lederartigen Schleierchen eingeschlossen, die sich von oben 
1 Kaulfuss in Berl. Jahrb. Pharm. 21: 53. 1820. 
