Vol. 26 



No. 5 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



T 



\ 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



MAY 1899 



American Ferns— II. The Genus Phanerophlebia 



Bv LucTEN Marcus Underwood 



(Plates 359, 360) 



During the past generation it has been customary for EngHsh 

 and American botanists to refer to a single species, Aspidiiun 

 jugIa}idifoliu))i^ a long series of widely different ferns from Mexico, 

 Central America and Venezuela. The original Polypodiuvi jit- 

 glaiidifoliuni was described from Caripe, Venezuela^ by Humboldt, 

 and his type is in the Willdenow herbarium. The relation of our 

 own flora to this species commenced with the discovery of a plant 

 on the Mexican Boundary Survey * which was referred to this 

 species although it specifically resembles the type almost as little as 

 it does PolysticJiuni acrosticJioidcs or any one of a half dozen species. 



Several species have been separated from time to time by 

 Schlectendal, by Martens and Galeotti, and later by Fournier. 

 The latter in his list of the Ferns of Mexico f distinguishes five 

 species but his knowledge of the typical form appears to have 



been somewhat at fault. 



M 



Baker, unites all these divergent plants under a single species and 

 the forty-three specimens at Kew are included under a single cov^er. 



* Under the head oi Aspidium juglandifoliunt in Eaton*5 Ferns of Nortli America, 

 we have the curious anomaly of a description of one species, a figure drawn from a 

 second, details of venation from a third, and the name of a fourth given to the aggre- 



gation. 



I Mexicanas Plantas, i : loo. 1S72. 



\ Biologia Centrali-Americana, 3 : 642. 1885. 



[Isbued 15 May, 1899.] ( 205 ) 



