Broadhurst: Struthiopteris in North America 373 



Christensen makes these three names (Schiedeana, longifolia, and 

 spectabilis) synonyms of Lomaria omifolia* Presl. Presl published 

 L. Sckiedeana five years after L. omifolia; in comparing them he 

 described omifolia, thought to be from Peru, as differing in having 

 obliquely cordate bases; Schiedeana he elsewhere described as 

 having elliptical-obtuse, not subcordate, bases. There seems 

 therefore no reason for adopting S. omifolia as the specific name 

 for these plants which possess rounded to almost tapering bases. 

 Fee's L. acrodonta has apparently an abnormal fertile frond; not 

 having access to the type, Schaffner 102, 1854, I see no valid reason 

 for separating it from S. Schiedeana, especially as the description 

 contains contradictory statements as to size. In the Rovirosa 

 specimen included in 5. Schiedeana, the fertile frond has in two 

 places a pair of fertile pinnae instead of the usual single pinna. 

 Such abnormality has not been noticed in any other species of 

 Struthiopteris. \ 



18. S. sessilifolia (Klotzsch) Broadh. comb. nov. 



Lomaria sessilifolia Klotzsch; Christ, Bull. Boiss. II. 4: 



1092. 1904. 



Blechnum sessilifolia[itni\ C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 159. 1905. 



Plants I terrestrial. Rhizome (not seen). Sterile fronds 1.5 m. 



long; stipes 50-82 cm. long, angulate, dull brownish, the scales 

 lanceolate, 1.5-2 cm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, dull brownish, ragged 

 (according to Christ, reddish straw-colored, very soft, and thread- 

 like) ; lamina 96 cm. long, 29 cm. wide, oblong, not at all or but 

 slightly reduced at the base (type A, without vestigial pinnae), 

 very gradually reduced at the apex, the pinnae crowded, 

 often opposite, the rachis grayish brown, with dull brownish, 

 fibrillose, more or less appressed, and deciduous scales; pinnae 

 58-70-jugate, linear-oblong, mostly falcate, the apex attenuate, 

 serrate, the base cordate, free throughout, and partly covering 

 the rachis, 13-15 cm. long, 20 mm. wide; margins irregularly 

 revolute; leaf tissue herbaceous (much rolled in the poorly 

 preserved cotype seen), not araneous below, the costal scales 

 lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, light brown, rather numerous; 



* Rel. Haenk. i: 51. 1825. 



t See the discussion under S. violacea of spurlike growths at the bases of the fertile 

 pinnae in some species of Struthiopteris, p. 380. 



% This description is chiefly from the U. S. National Museum cotype of L. 



sessilifolia. 



