274 Broadhurst: Struthiopteris in North America 



laminae; and (2) the same collection number* has fronds with and 

 also without the raised cartilaginous veins, which are but irregu- 

 larly present in the plants possessing them. Several plants from 

 Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, however, show such veins; they are 

 usually coriaceous in texture, the pinnae are longer and usually 

 linear-falcate in shape, and the bases of the laminae are rather 

 more abruptly reduced (type E) with occasionally distant pinnae. 

 These same characters are, however, found in some fronds without 

 the raised cartilaginous veins; and like the veins, they are not 

 uniform in all the fronds of the same plant. 



The specimens from Costa Rica and Panama have very long 

 and proportionately narrow sterile fronds, a form evidently com- 

 moner in Jamaica than in other islands. These mainland plants 

 differ also from most of the island specimens in having very narrow, 

 acuminate scales, with very long, slender teeth, which are variously 

 curved and often sharply recurved and hooklike. Separation of 

 these plants is impossible, however, because of intermediate 

 forms. Several Mexican plants (Finck 87) have similar fronds; 

 the scales are also very like those of the Costa Rican and Panama 

 plants, except that the black median line is often wanting. Among 

 the specimens from Jamaica are several sheets ( Underwood 558 and 

 Maxon 2725) which have scale margins intermediate between 

 those described above and the usual island type with short, 

 straighter teeth. 



Three sheets from Costa Rica ("Vallee du Dignis," epiphytic 

 exclusively on trees, altitude 700 m., Tonduz 12005) are men- 

 tioned here chiefly because of their epiphytic habit. The black- 

 centered scales are not long-toothed like the other Costa Rican 

 plants. The entire, linear laminae with winged stipes suggest 

 Kunze's Lomaria pteropus.\ His plants had similar scales, but 

 much shorter, broader laminae with fewer pinnae, 3-12-jugate 

 probably, while these Tonduz specimens are 17-25-jugate. The 

 stipes of pteropus are bordered by straight-edged extensions; in 

 the Tonduz plants the wings are composed of several pairs of 

 confluent, rounded lobes. Kunze describes his plant as barely 

 covered with earth ; Tonduz's specimens are positively epiphytic. 



* This variation is shown in eight sheets of Wright 864, and in single collection 

 numbers of more careful collectors in recent years: Nash, Maxon, and Underwood. 

 t Kunze, Farrnkr. 97. pi. 46. 1840; Raddi, PI. Bras. 1: 5. pi. 17. 1825. 



