MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 599 
idly herbaceous, slightly translucent, nearly glabrous above, beneath bearing a 
few fuscous 2 to 5-celled glandular hairs, these 0.13 to 0.2 mm. long. 
Type in the U. 8S. National Herbarium, no. 600742, collected at Tablazo, Costa 
Rica, altitude 1,900 meters, March 4, 1908, by C. Brade; received under the 
name P. capillare Desv. Two additional specimens are at hand, both collected 
in Costa Rica by Wercklé. Of these only one (distributed by Jiménez as no. 
588) bears precise locality data; namely, San Jerénimo, altitude 1,500 meters. 
Polypodium crassulum is clearly related to P. capillare, but more closely to 
P. pilipes Hook., of the Peruvian Andes, from which, as illustrated, it differs in 
its entire or faintly undulate, mostly simple segments. It isa rigidly herbaceous 
plant and of harsh texture in drying, a circumstance which has suggested the 
specific name employed. 
Polypodium nubigenum Maxon, sp. nov. 
Plants usually epiphytic, the fronds pendent or prostrate, numerous, fascicu- 
late, 10 to 25 cm. long. Rhizome erect or oblique, 1 to 3 cm. long, about 4 to 7 
mm. in diameter, freely radicose throughout, densely but inconspicuously 
paleaceous, the scales dark glossy brown in mass, nearly acicular, 1.8 to 8 mm. 
long, 0.1 to 0.2 mm. broad, subflexuous toward the tip, distantly erose-denticu- 
late, sparingly long-ciliate (the cilia divergent, acicular, hyaline, fragile, mostly 
0.08 to 0.17 mm. long, sometimes shorter and glandlike), castaneous by trans- 
mitted light, semitranslucent, the cells narrowly oblong to linear, both partition 
and outer walls thin but highly colored; stipes 1 to 2 cin. long, 0.3 to 0.4 mm. in 
diameter, densely pilose with long spreading reddish hairs; lamina very nearly 
pinnate, 9 to 23 cm. long, 1 to 6 cm. broad, linear, acutish at both ends; rachis 
Slender, blackish and raised below, bearing a few scattering but persistent 
stiffish hairs like those of the stipe, also, together with both surfaces of the 
lamina throughout, copiously glandular-pulverulent, the hairs minute, consist- 
ing of 2 to 4 spherical whitish beadlike cells; segments unequal, numerous, 
spreading (averaging 70°), alternate, straight or subflexuous, 0.5 to 5 cm. long, 
2 to 3 mm. broad, linear, usually attenuate and acutish, strongly sinuate, slightly 
decurved and decurrent at the fully adnate base (here 3 to 4 mm. broad), the 
segments rather close, faintly connected, the sinuses narrow, acutish; midveins 
subflexuous, mostly concealed; veins 3 to 18 pairs, very oblique (20 to 30°), 
simple (or the basal ones forked), slightly curved, extending halfway to the 
margin; sori 2 to 17 pairs, terminal, superficial, not confluent, extending to or at 
maturity slightly beyond the margin; sporangia glabrous, the annulus usually 
12-celled. Leaf tissue subspongiose-herbaceous, the veins not wholly evident by 
transmitted light. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 427732, collected at the summit of 
Blue Mountain Peak, Jamaica, altitude 2,220 meters, April 20 or 21, 1903, by 
William R. Maxon (no. 1477). 
The present species is known only from the highest peaks of the Blue Moun- 
tains, Jamaica, where it is locally abundant. It was described by Jenman’' as 
“ Polypodium capillare Desv.,” but represents a form specifically distinct from 
the several others which are so referred by various writers. Polypodium capil- 
lare is, in fact, a very poorly understood species, described originally from the 
“Antilles,” but since assigned a wide tropical American range. The original de- 
scription is brief and may be said to apply indifferently to several forms. There 
is, however, slight probability of its having been founded on the isolated plant 
of Blue Mountain Peak, here described as P. nubigenum, 
Polypodium nubigenum is most closely related to P. graveolens Baker, an 
endemic Jamaican plant of lower altitude, which it resembles closely in most 
* Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica II. 4: 120, 1897. 
