582 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
1904 it was again described, by Hieronymus, as P. costaricanum, for which the 
substitute name P. wendlandii was proposed by himself in 1905 because of an 
earlier P. costaricense Christ (1896). A careful reading of Hieronymus’s de- 
scription shows beyond doubt that his species is exactly P. myriolepis Christ. 
In the meantime Christ had referred! specimens of his own P. myriolepis to 
P. skinneri Hook., a free-veined plant of Guatemala and Mexico properly 
known as P. cryptocarpon; and a few years later? he formally reduced P. 
myriolepis to that species, citing by number two Guatemalan specimens in 
Captain Smith’s herbarium as agreeing exactly with Costa Rican material de- 
scribed as P. myriolepis. Both of these specimens are at hand, and neither of 
them represents P. skinneri. One (Lehmann 1487) is P. platylepis Mett., a 
free-veined species related to P. furfuraceum and P. skinneri; the other (Heyde 
& Lux 6288) is P. sanctae-rosae (Maxon) C. Chr., a species with regularly 
goniophlebioid venation resembling that of P. myriolepis, but a plant widely 
different in most other characters. Apparently Polypodium skinneri was un- 
known to Christ both then and at a later time when, in properly restoring ® 
P. myriolepis as a valid Costa Rican species, he nevertheless stated that 
Wercklé had collected a single specimen of true P. skinneri in Costa Rica. 
The writer has seen no specimen of “ P. skinneri” from the region south of 
Guatemala, and seriously doubts the occurrence of this species (P. crypto- 
carpon) in Costa Rica. 
As observed by the writer at the type locality and in western Panama P. 
myriolepis grows upon the trunks of living trees and on logs, and particularly 
about the bases of forest trees. The sinuous rhizomes are wide-creeping and 
only lightly attached to the substratum. Although covered with very numerous 
scales, they are perfectly smooth to the touch, owing to the fact that these are ; 
exceedingly minute, centrally peltate, and very closely appressed to the rhi- 
zome, their paler borders not at all projecting. A similar condition prevails in 
P. collinsii, a species very different in most particulars. In P. sanctae-rosae 
the rhizome scales are very much larger and vary from ovate to deltoid- 
ovate, as mentioned under that species, See also under P. macrolepis. 
The following specimens are in the U. S. National Herbarium: 
Costa Rica: Forests of La Palma, alt. 1,450 to 1,550 meters, Tonduz 9692, 
12570; Maron 477, Cartago, alt. 1,800 meters, Cooper (J. D. Smith, 
no. 6047). Tablazo, alt. 1,900 meters, Biolley 56. Volcfin de Poids, alt. 
2,000 meters, Alfaro 115. 
PANAMA: Humid forest along the Upper Caldera River, near Camp I, Hol- 
comb’s Trail, above El Boquete, Chiriquf, alt. 1,450 to 1,650 meters, 
Mazon 5709, 
2. Polypodium sanctae-rosae (Maxon) C. Chr. Ind. Fil. Suppl. 62. 1913. 
Goniophlebium sanctae-rosae Maxon, Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herb. 13: 8. 1909. 
TYPE LocaLiry: Near Santa Rosa, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, altitude about 
1,600 meters (von Tiirckheim II. 1607). 
DistTRIBUTION: Mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala, at 1,000 to 
1,800 meters altitude. 
A strongly characterized species which ought not to be confused readily with 
any other. From the Costa Rican P. myriolepis it differs obviously in its 
thicker and less widely creeping rhizomes, its more numerous and nearly super- 
ficial sori, and in the paleaceous covering of both rhizome and lamina. The 
*In Pittier, Prim. Fl. Costar. 3: 17. 1901. 
* Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 5: 4. 1905. 
*Bull. Soc. Bot. Genéve II, 1: 220. 1909. 
