MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 149 
Faton’s excellent plate should serve to identify this species withoutdoubt. Never- 
theless, Jenman, though citing it, has applied the name “‘ Asplenium ebeneum Ait.” to 
the very dissimilar Jamaican plant here described as A. nesioticum, as shown not only 
by hisdescription but by specimensof the Jenman collection at the New York Botanical 
Garden. Sodiro also has erroneously applied the same name to certain specimens 
from the Andes of South America which have been regarded by Doctor Christ as a 
new species, A. sodiroi;! but additional specimens collected in Costa Rica by Tonduz 
(no. 12333) and included by Doctor Christ have herbaceous green stipes and clearly 
fall outside the limits of the A. trichomanes group. The South American element has 
not been seen by the writer. 
The occurrence of A. platyneuron in South Africa gives this species a distribution 
which, while unusual, is not unprecedented; and specimens at hand from that region 
seem to be identical with the United States plant. Few of the species of this group 
are less exacting in requirements of habitat. It is often plentiful at the edge of 
moist, rich, rocky woods, but will be found again upon open sandy hillsides or less 
commonly in the chinks of cliffs of various formations. It appears to attain its best 
development along partially shaded or rather open rocky banks, often flourishing in 
large colonies among grasses and the rank growth of latesummer. Photographs show- 
ing it in its natural surroundings, as well as illustrations of herbarium specimens, have 
been published in several books dealing with the ferns of the United States in a popular 
way within recent years. <Asplenium trichomanes has been similarly treated. 
Some doubt may reasonably be expressed as to the desirability of going back to the 
Species Plantarum of Linneeus for the species name platyneuron. The figures there 
cited under Acrostichum platyneuros pertain to Polypodium vulgare or P. poly podioides, 
and the only Asplenium element mentioned is contained in Gronovius’s brief char- 
acter:? ASCROSTICUM Jrondibus alternatim pinnatis, foliolis ovatis crenatis sessilibus, 
sursum arcuatis. Clayton’s description, cited by Gronovius, is even briefer: Tricho- 
manes foliis minoribus, caule nigro splendente; but as applied to a Virginia plant it 
describes an Asplenium rather than a Polypodium, and so may actually relate to the 
plant long known as Asplenium ebeneum. Eaton * is authority for the statement that 
this species is not represented in the Linnzean herbarium under the name Acrostichum 
platyneuros. Clayton’s plant, cited by Gronovius, should be in the British Museum; 
but Mr. A. Gepp, who has been good enough to search for it, states that it is not now 
to be found, although there is a Gronovian specimen rightly named and marked as 
coming from Carolina. This was probably the basis of Gronovius’s description, 
adopted bodily by Linnzeus (who published no description of his own), and so may 
stand as the type of Acrostichum platyneuros. 
The later synonomy as cited above appears to be complete. Michaux’s description 
of A. trichomanoides, though inadequate, seems to apply to A. platyneuron, as both 
Moore and Eaton have claimed. The amended description by Kunze,* however, 
almost certainly applies to A. resiliens. 
16. Asplenium denudatum Mett.; Kuhn, Linnaea 36: 93. 1869. 
Typr Locatity: ‘Andes Peruvianae,’’ the exact locality and collector’s name not 
stated. 
DistriBuTIoN: Mountains of Peru and Ecuador. 
This species is known to the writer from a single imperfect specimen, this agreeing 
in nearly every particular with the original description. Superficially, in the shape 
of the pinnz and character of the sori, it resembles A. monanthes rather closely, and 
1 Christ in Pittier, Prim. Fl. Costar. 3: 26. 1901. 
2 Gronov. FI. Virg. 123. 1739. 
3 Canad. Nat. 18: 25. 1870. 
4 Amer. Journ. Sci. 6: 85. 1848. 
