128 Rhodora [Jury 
of the European P. vulgare that only upon the most minute but often 
inconstant characters can they possibly be kept apart from them. 
In fact if one compares a series of typical Californian plants (for 
example Heller’s no. 5011 or 7255, C. F. Baker’s no. 235; Abrams’s 
no. 3021 or Parish's no. 4375) with a series of the European P. vulgare, 
var. serratum, he will have the greatest difficulty in separating the 
fronds; or similarly, he will be puzzled if he compares them with such 
European plates as Lowe's Our Native Ferns, i. t. 6 (and figs. 6, 18, 
21, etc.) or Moore's Nature Printed British Ferns (octavo ed.), i. tt. 
l and 2. Hooker & Baker in Synopsis Filicum, to be sure, placed P. 
californicum in the Section Goniophlebium with “Veins forming 
ample regular areolae," while P. vulgare was kept in Eupolypodium 
with “Veins free"; but they certainly must have been in error for, 
although some extreme specimens show several areolae, the veins 
of P. californicum are mostly quite free and specimen after specimen 
shows no difference in venation between this species and the European. 
Indeed, several European specimens in the Gray Herbarium, 
especially of P. vulgare, var. serratum, have quite as many areolae as 
there are in extreme Californian plants; and such “ nature-printed ”’ 
illustrations of the European P. vulgare as those of Moore’s Nature 
Printed British Ferns (octavo ed.) tt. 3 D and 5 or Ettinghausen & 
Pokorny's Gefdsspflanzen Oesterreichs in Naturselbstdruck, i. (t. 7) 
show as numerous areolae as many Californian specimens, especially 
those referred to P. californicum, var. intermedium D. C. Eaton, of 
which its author frankly stated, that “in var. intermedium this species 
| P. californicum] makes an inconveniently near approach to P. vulgare,” 
adding the comment: “It may be noticed in this connection that 
Milde says of the veinlets of P. vulgare, var. serratum, ‘Interdum 
ramos anastomosantes invent.’ ”! 
Similarly, the same difficulty is experienced in separating fronds 
of Polypodium falcatum (for instance, J. C. Nelson, no. 1122) from 
such a plate as Lowe's no. 9, representing P. vulgare, var. Acutum- 
Stansfieldii. In this connection it is noteworthy that, in Synopsis 
Filicum, Hooker & Baker assigned P. vulgare a North American 
range only from “Sitka, southward to California and the north of 
Mexico,” i. e. they excluded, by inference, P. virginianum of the East 
and included as specifically inseparable from P. vulgare the western 
1D. C. Eaton, Ferns of N. A. i. 246 (1879). 
