FERNS OF SOUTHERN CHINA. 
By Edwin Bingham Copelaxd. 
{From the Bureau of Education, Manila, P. I.) 
During the past year I liave received tliree collections of Chinese ferns 
sent for determination. The first was from Rev. H. A. Kemp, an 
American missionary' at Choochowfu, near Swatow. These ferns were 
collected at Mr. Kemp's request in Kwangtung Province^ about 180 
miles northeast of Hongkong. The second collection was sent by Dr. 
Charles G. Matthew of the British Navy. Dr. Matthew collected them 
in the mountainous interior of Kwangtung and Fokien Provinces. The 
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third was from Mr. S. T. Dunn, Director of the Hongkong Botanic 
Garden. ' Mr. Dunn collected these ferns in 1905 in Fokien Province. 
These gentlemen have my cordial thanks for honoring me with the op- 
portunity to determine their collections. 
The fern flora of this part of China has been described from various 
earlier collections sufficiently so that it is no longer worth while to 
enumerate all the ferns found now. I therefore mention here only the 
species to which some especial interest attaches. 
Dryopteris sparsa (Ham.) 0. K. 
There are a number of specimens of this common and variable fern, and they 
vary from typical to plants (Dunn 3SS^) I can not di^jtiii^aiish from the Japanese 
D. Sahaei (Franch. et Sav.) C. Chr., which Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. (1899) 822, 
has already reported from China, referring it however to D. Filix-mas. There 
are also depauperate specimens, the most extreme of which, Dunn 3836, from Tan 
Ka Cha, alt. 1,200 m, I can not distinguish by description from D. Cavalerii 
(Christ) C. Chr. 
Dryopteris erythrosora (Eaton) O. K. 
Dunn 3832 and 387^ are coriaceous plants with very scaly stipe and rachis 
suggesting the form mentioned by Christ from the collection of Cavaler, Ac. 
Geog. Bot. (1904) 117, but not aristate. They might be referred to D. laccra 
except that the frond is soriferous throughout. And they are not very distinct 
from forms of the protean D. Filix-mas {Aspidium Championi Beuth.^ Dunn S881). 
Dryopteris Eatoni (Baker) O.K.? 
Matthew 4 from Tai Mo Shan, alt. 730 m, agrees with the description, except 
that it is glabrous beneath and more dissected. It has not been reported before 
from the mainland. 
r 
Dryopteris decipiens (Hook.) 0. K. 
Matthew 56, Snnisn. Fokien: Kemp. 
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