The Philippine Journal of Science, C. Botany 
Vol. VIII, No. 3, May, 1913. 
ON PHYLLITIS IN MALAYA AND THE SUPPOSED GENERA 
DIPLORA AND TRIPHLEBIA 
By Edwin Bingham Copeland 
{From the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, 
Los Banos, P. I.) 
Three plates 
The genus Diplora was founded by Baker,^ with the following 
diagnosis: "Genus Diplora, Sorus sausage-shaped, running up 
the erecto-patent simple vein from the midrib of the frond to 
its margin, the two equal narrowly strap-shaped valves of the 
superior membranous indusium meeting in the middle over the 
raised vein, and bursting open as the sorus matures." "Amongst 
familiar European types it is most like Scolopendrium; but here 
the sori reach uniformly from the midrib of the frond to its 
margin, and the pair of involucres, instead of springing from 
two contiguous veins and meeting in the interspace, spring from 
two sides of a single vein, and quite hide it until they burst 
open." 
A woodcut, conforming exactly to the description, accom- 
panies the original description. In Hooker's Icones ^ are four 
figures representing well the actual appearance; and two of 
these are worked over in the Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, 1* 
Fig. 122, A, B. 
In examining a fern collected in Papua by the Reverend Cop- 
land King, which had been determined for him in Sydney as 
Phyllitis mambare (Bailey) (See Fig. 1), I found a condition 
which at first sight seemed to conform exactly to Baker's de- 
scription and the figures; but a somewhat more careful study 
showed that the actual structure was entirely different, and 
quite like that of several ferns of the same region regarded as 
Triphlebia or Phyllitis. I showed these specimens, with the 
figures of Diplora, to several careful botanists, and they all agreed 
that the identity was complete; so that it immediately suggested 
itself that Baker had misinterpreted the structure of his Diplora. 
' Baker, J. G. A New Genus of Ferns of the Tribe Asplenieae. Jounu 
Bat, 11 (1873) 235. 
*Hook. Ic. III. 7: pi. 1651. 
147 
