592 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
The following specimens are in the U. 8. National Herbarium: 
Mexico: Region of Orizaba, Veracruz, Bourgeau 2883; Pringle 5586 (2 
sheets); Purpus 5093; Mohr; Chas. G. Wood2 Jalapa, Veracruz, 
Orcutt 2839, 
11. Polypodium lepidopteris (Langsd. & Fisch.) Kunze, Linnaea 18: 132. 1836. 
Acrostichum lepidopteris Langsd. & Fisch. Icon. Fil. 1: 5. 1810, 
Polypodium sepultum Kaulf. Enum, Fil. 104. 1824, 
Polypodium hirsutissimum Raddi, Opuse. Sci. Bologna 8: 286. 1819; Pl. Bras. 
1: 17. 1825. 
Polypodium rufulwm Presl, Del. Prag. 1: 164, 1822. 
Polypodium tricholepis Schrad. Gétt. Anz. Ges. Wiss, 1824: 867. 1824. 
Polypodium raddii Desv. Mém, Soc. Linn. Paris 6: 232, 1827. 
TYPE LocaALity: Island of Santa Catharina, Brazil. 
DIstTRIBUTION: Brazil and Uruguay. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Langsd. & Fisch. op. cit. pl. 2 (as A. lepidopteris) ; Raddi, Pl. 
Bras. 1: pl. 26 (as P. hirsutissimum). 
The above names are applied variously to several forms which, taken together, 
constitute a single species, P. lepidopteris, as currently understood. That this 
concept is erroneous seems probable, if we may judge from the diverse forms 
included. Material at hand is too incomplete, however, to more than suggest 
probable lines of segregation, and the critical revision of this species is accord- 
ingly deferred until it may be possible to study a sufficiently large series of 
complete individual plants. 
12. Polypodium bombycinum Maxon, sp. nov. 
Rhizome short-creeping, with numerous. short closely clustered branches, 
these stout, 8 to 5 mm. in diameter, freely radicose, densely and divaricately 
paleaceous, the scales 3 to 4 mm. long, 0.7 to 0.8 mm. broad at the base, very 
gradually narrowed to a long linear-attenuate apex, castaneous, concolorous, the 
cells mostly very large, narrowly hexagonal to linear and sharp-pointed, with 
very strongly sclerotic partition walls and much thinner, slightly paler outer 
falls (lumina very narrow or wanting) ; margins of the scales beset with 
numerous straight or curved, divergent, acicular, cilia-like teeth, these mostly 
0.12 to 0.17 mm. long, slightly cleft at the tip. Fronds several, stiffly erect, 5 to 
7 mm. apart, nearly exstipitate (the stipe 0.3 to 2 em. long), 17 to 45 em. long, 
very densely appressed-paleaceous throughout; lamina subpinnatisect, linear to 
very narrowly linear-oblanceolate, 2 to 4.5 em. broad at the middle, attenuate 
to the acute, abruptly caudate apex, very gradually long-attenuate to the base, 
the 4 to 10 lowermost pairs of segments broadly deltoid, 2 to 5 mm. long; rachis 
stout, divaricately paleaceous, the scales of the lower side similar to those of 
the rhizome but shorter, narrower, and with relatively longer teeth; segments 
35 to 60 pairs, divergent, about their own width apart, mostly 1 to 2.8 em. 
long, 2.5 to 4 mm. broad, oblong to linear-oblong, acute, distinctly dilatate 
(with a minute distal auricle), connected by a faint wing, conspicuously paleace- 
ous upon both surfaces; scales of the upper side yellowish white, numerous, 
rigid, imbricate, 3 to 4 mm. long, almost capillary, with a few long ascending 
teeth in the narrow basal part; scales of the lower side ferruginous, very 
numerous, oblique, densely imbricate, 3 to 4 mm. long, stiffly capillary-acicular 
from a minute few-celled deeply stellate base, minutely, obliquely, and distantly 
‘From a large specimen, in cultivation at the New York Botanical Garden, 
which was raised from a small plant taken from a tuft of a living orchid (Gon- 
gora truncata) received from Mr. Charles G. Wood, Orizaba, in 1903. 
