Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 26. May, 1924. No. 305. 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARIUM OF 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.—Nrw Sertes.—No. LXXII. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
I. POLYSTICHUM MOHRIOIDES AND SOME OTHER 
SUBANTARCTIC OR ANDEAN PLANTS IN 
THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. 
POLYSTICHUM MOHRIOIDES (Bory) Presl, var. scopulinum (D. C. 
Eaton), n. comb. Aspidium aculeatum, var. scopulinum D. C. Eaton, 
Ferns of N. A. ii. 125, t. lxii. fig. 8 (1880). P. scopulinum (D. C. Eaton) 
Maxon, Fern Bull. viii. 29 (1900). P. aculeatum scopulinum (D. C. 
Eaton) Gilbert, List N. A. Pterid. 20 (1901). P. Lonchitis, var. 
scopulinum (D. C. Eaton) Jones, Bull. Univ. Mont., Biol. Ser. xv. 7 
(1910). 
After several times collecting and studying during a period of 
nearly twenty years this anomalous plant, which has been treated 
as a variety of Polystichum aculeatum or of P. Lonchitis, as P. mohri- 
oides and as a distinct species standing midway between P. aculeatum 
and P. mohrioides, I find myself firmly convinced that its relationship 
is primarily with the latter plant and that it is at best a northern 
variety of that wide-ranging austral species. P. mohrioides was dis- 
covered on the Falkland Islands (les Malouines) by D'Urville & Lesson 
during the voyage around the world of the French corvette, La 
Coquille. It was described by Bory de St.-Vincent as Aspidium 
Mohrioides and beautifully illustrated. Gradually our knowledge 
of the plant has been extended and P. mohrioides in one form or an- 
other has been found to have a wide and very distinctive range, one 
which, with some modifications, is duplicated in several other groups 
of plants. 
1 Bory in Duperrey, Voyage autour du Monde sur La Coquille, Bot. pt. 1: 267, t. 
35, fig. 1 (1829). 
