Vol. XIII, pp. 199-200 December 21, 1900 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THB 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



POLYPODIUM HESPERIUM, A NEW FERN FROM 

 WESTERN NORTH AMERICA.* 



liY WILLIAM R. MAXON. 



Tlie prospect before one attempting to bring anything like 

 order out of the substantial aggregate known as PolyjKHlkim 

 vulgare is far from encouraging. Much uncertainty exists even 

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

 iloubted whether the common form of the eastern LTnited 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. Americam(m;\ but he seems to have disregarded it in 

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

 tity of his vav. occklental€\ founded upon specimens collected 

 at 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 7-*. f((Jcatam\ and again by Eaton as P. ylycyr- 

 rliizd,^ 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. 

 :j;Proc. Cad. Acad. Sci. I, i : 20. 1854. 

 i'Am. Journ. Sci. II, 22 : 138. 1856. 



4.i— BIOL. Soc. Wash. Vol. XIII, 1900. (199) 



