368 Broadhurst: Struthiopteris in North America t 



tain Peak, altitude 6,500-7,325 ft., Underwood 1446 (Y). Lower 

 slopes of Mt. Moses, moist shaded banks among bushes, altitude 

 2,000-2,500 ft., Maxon 1049 (N). Cinchona, altitude 5,000 ft., 

 Cluteyi (Y, N). 



Among these Jamaican plants, as in 5. violacea and S. striata, 

 there occur small but mature specimens differing mainly in size 

 from the larger ones. These smaller plants have narrower laminae 

 (3-4 times as long as broad instead of 2-2.5 times), the pinnae are 

 closer and smaller (4.5-8 cm. long and 6-12 mm. wide as con- 

 trasted with pinnae 13-20 cm. long and 15-18 mm. wide); the 

 leaf tissue is much heavier in these smaller forms. As indicated 

 above, a similar range occurs in several other species, and it was 

 not thought best to subdivide them. In this case, however, the 

 rhizome may offer a real distinction. The smaller Underwood 

 plant of S. lineata in the New York Botanical Garden conserva- 

 tories already referred to in a footnote has an erect rhizome 10 cm. 

 high and 4-5 cm. thick. The larger S. lineata plant incompletely 

 labeled as from Jamaica, though larger in every other way, has a 

 low spreading crown about 7 cm. broad and but slightly raised 

 above the soil.* 



Professor L. M. Underwood, who collected a great deal of S. 

 lineata in Jamaica, stated that it is "very variable according to 

 soil and light, and especially, age." 



The two species, S. lineata and 6 1 . striata, have long been 

 confused. The measurements given by Swartz indicate that in 

 both cases he described small forms. He distinguished between 

 them by describing striata (1) as having broader, almost entire, 

 and sessile sterile pinnae, in which the whole apex is serrate; and 

 (2) as having fertile pinnae with dilated cordate bases. A careful 

 study of over thirty sheets from the type localities has shown (1) 

 that many of the S. lineata group have fertile pinnae with cordate 

 bases; (2) that the lower pinnae of striata are petioled; and (3) 

 that the tips are serrate in most of the lineata group, also. Never- 



* Other differences, which correspond to those found in herbarium specimens, 

 are as follows: the smaller plant has stipes 15-17 cm. long, laminae 25-35 cm. long 

 and 13-14 cm. wide, close to overlapping pinnae, which are 16-20-jugate, with the 

 terminal pinna 6-7 cm. long; the larger plant has stipes 45-60 cm. long, more or less 

 blotched with brown, laminae 45-60 cm. long and 20 cm. wide, pinnae not close, 

 25-27-jugate, with a terminal pinna 9-1 1 cm. long. 



