SCOLOPENDRIUM HTBRIDUM, WOODSIA AND POLYSTICHUM ILLYRICUM 



men was described in 1 864 and named by Milde, who regarded it as a hybrid between 

 Ceterach (Fig. 1470) and Scolopendrium vulgare, and since the latter species was not at that 

 time recorded from the island, Milde predicted that it would subsequently be found. 

 Another suggestion made later by Luerssen (1889) was that a more probable affinity 

 might be with the south European S. hemionitis Lag., Garcia & Clem. (Fig. 147^). 

 This species has a much more restricted range than S. vulgare and is the only other 

 member of the genus Scolopendrium present in Europe; it occurs on many of the Mediter- 



Fig. 147. Two of the imagined parents of Sco/o/^m^nwrn/i^iri^Mm. Natural size. a. Ceterach officinarum DC. 

 from the south of France with 71=72. From a Hving leaf grown in cultivation, b. Scolopendrium 

 hemionitis Lag., Garcia & Clem, from the south of France, from a pressed wild leaf of a small plant. 



ranean islands and south European coasts. An affinity with S. hemionitis has been 

 accepted as probable by most subsequent writers, and S. hybridum was indeed regarded 

 as a subspecies of 5". hemionitis by Ascherson and Graebner in 1896. The claim that it 

 should be regarded as a totally distinct species had, however, already been made* 

 by Heinz in 1892, and this may also have been suspected by Reichardt himself who 

 comments (1863) on the fertility of the spores. Most subsequent discussion in the litera- 

 ture has accepted this view, while reiterating the probability that the species may have 

 originated as a hybrid which had become fertile. Many lines of evidence have been 

 quoted. In addition to the morphological comparisons introduced by Milde anatomical 

 comparisons between Scolopendrium and Ceterach carried out by Hoffman in 1899 showed 

 Scolopendrium hybridum to be intermediate. A similar result was obtained by comparison 

 of the prothalli in 1922 by Howat, while at least two investigators have studied 

 * A clear summary of the history of this controversy will be found in Morton (1914a, 1925)- 



