VOL. XIII, PP. 199-200 DECEMBER 21, 1900 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



PQLYPODIUM HESPERIUM, A NEW FERN FROM 

 WESTERN NORTH AMERICA.* 



BY WILLIAM R. MAXON. 



The prospect before one attempting to bring anything like 

 order out of the substantial aggregate known as Poly podium 

 rt(1</<n'< j is far from encouraging. Much uncertainty exists even 

 as to the typical form of the species, and it is certainly to be 

 doubted whether the common form of the eastern United States 

 truly represents the species long ago characterized upon Euro 

 pean material as vulgare. At one time Hooker regarded our 

 eastern representative of varietal rank and briefly characterized 

 it as var. Americamtm ; \ but he seems to have disregarded it in 

 his later work. Much confusion has arisen also as to the iden 

 tity of his var. occidentale\ founded upon specimens collected 

 jit the mouth of the Columbia and at Sitka. So far as the de 

 scription goes it applies well to the plant later described by 

 Kellogg as P. falcatum\ and again by Eaton as P. glycyr- 

 rhizf(i$ but it may with equal propriety be referred to another 

 form of the Pacific coast especially abundant in Alaska and the 

 Aleutian Islands which is rather coriaceous in texture and in 



*Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu 

 tion. 



f Flora Bor. Am. 2 : 258. 1840. 

 JProc. Cad. Acad. Sci. I, I : 20. 1854. 

 ;.!Am. Journ. Sci. II, 22 : 138. 1856. 



4^ BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XIII, 1900. (199) 



