56 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 
2. Cibotium regale Versch. & Lem. Ill. Hort. 15: under pl. 548, 1868. Puarer 31. 
Dicksonia regalis Baker in Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. ed. 2. 461. 1874. 
Type Locauity: Described from cultivated specimens collected in Mexico by 
Ghiesbreght, altitude 1,500 to 1,800 meters. 
DistriBuTION: Chiapas, Mexico. 
ItLustration: Ill. Hort. pl. 548, in part (colored figure; also fig. 52). 
The original description of this species states no exact locality for the specimens 
collected by Ghiesbreght, but gives the altitude as from 5,000 to 6,000 feet. Two 
large pinne of Ghiesbreght’s collection in the D. C. Eaton herbarium, however, have 
the following data: “‘No. 351. Terre temperée. Etat de Chiapas. Fougére arbore- 
scente. Tronc de 3 44 pieds de haut. Frondes de 5 4 6 metres de longeur. Croix 
au bord des ruisseaux, Juillet et Aout.’’; all but the number being apparently in 
Ghiesbreght’s hand. Three pinnules of this, which is doubtless the type collection, 
are shown in plate 31 and will give an excellent idea of the species.' 
Cibotium regale has nearly the form of C. wendlandi, but differs conspicuously in its 
acuminate (not aristate) segments, in having the costee and costules very sparingly 
silky-pubescent below (the hairs long and very readily deciduous), and in having the 
under surface of the segments conspicuously pruinose (not greenish), In cutting it 
is quite dissimilar to C. guatemalense. It is more nearly related, perhaps, to C. schiedei, 
but differs in many respects, notably in its more numerous pinnules, greater size, 
different texture, revolute margins, and the different direction and position of the 
sori, and in having the veins of the sterile segments mostly two or three times forked, 
not mostly once forked. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 31.—Three pinnules of Ghiesbreght 351, from Chiapas. Natural size. 
3. Cibotium guatemalense Reichenb.; Kuhn, Linnaea 86: 152. 1869. Pratre32, f, g. 
Dicksonia guatemalensis Baker in Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. ed. 2. 461. 1874. 
Type Locauity: Guatemala, Wendland. 
DistrisutTion: Apparently confined to the humid mountain region of eastern 
Guatemala, altitude 1,500 meters or less. 
Cibotium guatemalense is readily distinguished from its allies by the key characters 
noted above. It has very large, nearly or quite tripinnate fronds, with both pinne 
and pinnules very much larger than those of C. scheidei, from which it differs con- 
spicuously also in its imbricate, differently placed sori and its more numerous veins 
(8 to 15 pairs). The oblique position and crowding of the sori separate it immediately 
from C. regale. 
The species has been reported from Costa Rica upon the basis of two different 
collections. The first of these (Warscewicz 43), according to a pinnule in the Under- 
wood Fern Herbarium, indicates an undescribed species very closely allied to C. wend- 
An illustration is practically essential to a clear understanding of this species, 
owing to the very faulty original figures and the confusion existing between Lemaire’s 
legends for the detailed drawings and his ‘explanation of the analytical figures.”’ 
Figure 5 of plate 548 is presumably “‘fig. 1” of the ‘‘explanation,”’ and probably is 
intended to represent Ghiesbreght’s plant, as is stated. Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of plate 
548 apparently represent the two ‘‘pennules” and ‘‘a, b, & c” mentioned in the 
“‘explanation,’”? which are said to be redrawn from Hooker’s plate 30A of the Species 
Filicum, and are obviously copied from that. A comparison of plate 548 with 
Hooker’s plate 30A shows that the disagreement of the numbers which really appear on 
plate 548, with the letters and numbers of Lemaire’s ‘‘explanation,” is due to an error 
of the artist, who copied not only Hooker’s detailed illustrations but also the identical 
numbers which accompanied them in the original! The drawing labeled 5 in plate 
548 is, as mentioned above, doubtless meant for C. regale; but its resemblance to 
Hooker’s figure (fig. 1 of pl. 548) is too close to offer any distinctive features 
whatever. It should be borne in mind also that the plant of Hooker’s plate 30A is not 
C. schiedei, but C. wendlandi. (See under the latter species, p. 57.) 
