FERN GENERA NEW TO THE PHILIPPINES, 
By EnwiN Bingham Copelaxd. 
{From the Bureau of Education, Manila, P. I.) 
BALANTIUM Kaulf. 
The fern described as Dicksonia Copelandi Christ, Philip. Journ. Sci. 2 (1007) 
Bot. 183, is most nearly related, as Clnist stated, to D, straminea Labill. and 
D. eoniifolia S\v. Both of tliese species are Jialantium, as tliat genus is construed 
by Diels and Christcnseu; and I liave the authority of Dr. Christ for calling this 
one Balantium Copelandi Christ. 
The Australian plant known as Dacullia duhia R. Br., doubtfully placed by 
Christensen in the section Lcucostegia, is also a Balantium, and should be called 
Balantium dubium (R. Br.) Copel. It Avas placed in this genus by Presl, Tent. 
Pterid. 134, PI. 5, Fig. J,, as B. Iroicnianum. It shares with B. Copelandi as 
peculiar a characteristic as the mottled rachises. 
The position of the genus is worthy of a word. The annulus of B. duhium 
is often unmistakably uninterrupted; in some cases it is apparently interrupted 
by the pedicel. The completeness of the annulus does not seem to me to be a 
fixed character here. But even if it is, there are other Polypodiaceae with oblique 
unnulusj Plagiogyria, for instance. The other character on which Diels excludes 
Balantium from the Polypodiaceae is the elevated and tracheid-bearing receptacle; 
but he uses this structure as a genus character of Mtcrolcpia. The sori of my 
specimens agree witli Hooker's figure, Sp. Fil. 1 : plate 24, C, rather than with 
PresPs, cited above. In or near Dennstaedtia, we have already D. scondcns (Bl.) 
Moore, whose indusium is sometimes not more highh' developed than that of 
B. duhium, and sometimes entirely wanting. 
In spite of the stump-like stem, the affinity of Balantium to Dennstaedtia 
(including Microlepia) is very evident and very close. Its affinity to DicTySonia 
is likewise not in question. If we sometime understand thoroughly that the 
Cyatheaccac constitute a homogenetic group which includes Dicksonia and Balan- 
tium, then the intimate relationship of Balantium and Dennstaedtia need not 
prevent the placing of Balantium in that family; for if the doctrine of descent 
were proven in every detail, and the gaps between the orders of higher plants 
made narrower than those between recognizable varieties or subspecies, no reason- 
able adherent of the doctrine would expect us to cease to recognize the most of 
the present orders, genera, and species.^ However, at present, the itiutual affinities 
of the Cyatlicaceae not being clear, it seems reasonable, with Fee,- to place the 
' I reuiember being taught that by a "species" Avas meant any group of 
organisms not connected by an essentially complete series of known living or 
extinct forms with another such group. Such a conception makes it a mere token 
of contemporary ignorance! 
' Polypodiaceae, 38, 334. 
74379 3 301 
