166 



Mindanao, Zamboanga, monte Balabac, 1,200 m. s. mi., GopeUmd 1770. 

 The close affinity of this remarkable fern to Drynaria is shown by (lie very 

 characteristic texture — dry, with thin lamina stiffened by the strongly reinforced 



veinlets — the venation— a tine, regular net with free included veinlets — the 

 dehiscence, from the costa, of the segments of the deeply pinnatifid frond, the 

 lleshy, minutely scaly rhizome, and the lmmus -collect ing habit. The most of 

 these features it shares also with Dryostachyum, and with two so-called Polypodia 

 of this region — P. hcravtcitm and /'. inci/enitnnnn. They show a near relationship, 

 but do not make us regard plants as congeneric. In its humus-collecting struc- 

 tures Thayeria is wholly unlike any other known plant, the specialization having 

 gone beyond the frond to the rhizome. Each leaf is a unit, a complete receptacle, 

 wholly out of contact with the main rhizome. It is the most perfect of the 

 humus-collecting organs developed in its group, the material collected being 

 inclosed on all sides and protected against desiccation with a thoroughness nat 

 attained even by Asplenium nidus. The specialization of the branch end as a 

 root bearer in the bottom of the cornucopia is a very novel feature. 



After I first found this plant, my appreciation of its novelty grew, and I made 

 a second trip — a nearly two days' journey into trailless mountains — in a vain 

 attempt to secure fruiting specimens. It is common the length of one high 

 ridge; but, so far as I could discover, is entirely sterile. 



The New Guinea fern described as Polypodium neelariferum leaker in Beccari's 

 Malesia, 2: 247, Plate 69, is surely a Thayeria, the identification being insured 

 by the sterile frond and the tortuous, stout rhizome, both very characteristic. 

 1 have sterile specimens from Lcpanto-Bontoc in northern Luzon, Copeland 1927, 

 agreeing with Beccari's figure even to the auriculate base. They have elongate, 

 rather amorphous paleas 7 mm. long, but these are deciduous except for a ragged, 

 peltate base. It is also nectariferous. 1 call it Thayeria nectarifera (Baker). 



ELAPHOGLOSSUM Schott. 



Elaphoglossum callaefolium (Bl.) Moore. 

 Mindanao, Mount Apo, Copeland. 

 Java. 



LO MAG RAM MA J. 8m. 



Lomagramma pteroides J. 8m.. Hooker's Journ. Bot. 4: 162. 



Luzon, Cuming; Mindoro, McGregor 2.15. McGregor's plant has membranous, 

 green pinna\ with evident, but not raised, venation. My Mindanao plants, 

 No. 1736, distributed as L. pteroides, are distinct, and I have sterile specimens 

 of still another species from Luzon. The genus appears to me to have constant 

 and valid characters. 



GLEICHENIA Bm. 



Gleichenia laevissima Christ, Bull. Acad. Mans. 1902, p. 268. 



Luzon, Benguet, Pauai, 1,000 m. s. m.. Copeland 1954. 



China. 



Harder in leaf texture than its local relatives, and conspicuously different in 

 the far from horizontal pinnules. 



