Benedict: Revision of the genus Vittaria 



399 



Hecistopteris Werckleana Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 7: 265. 

 1907. 



Stem slender, 4-5 cm. long, the scales small, often contorted, 

 4-6 cells wide at the base, the costae rather heavy; leaves few, 

 spreading, 3-6 cm. long, the petiole brownish, the lamina oblong or 

 lanceolate, broadest about the middle, 4-7 mm. broad, long-acute 

 or sometimes blunter and forked, the margins plane, the leaf- 

 trace single, dividing to form 2-8 veinlets, the areolae parallel to 

 the midvein; sporangial line nearly straight, 1.5-2 mm. from the 

 margin, superficial, the paraphyses as in the other species of the 

 subgenus. (Text figs. 1-5.) 



Type from Costa Rica: Endres, i86q, 5,000 ft. altitude. 



Specimens examined. Costa Rica: (without definite locali- 

 ties), Endres, type; Werckle, 1903 (= Hecistopteris Werckleana 

 Christ). 



Figs. 1-5. Vitlaria minima (Baker) Benedict. Figures 1-3 show general habit 

 of species, soriation, and venation. (All natural size.) Figures 4 and 5 illustrate a 

 small and a large scale from the stem (enlarged about 60 times). All the drawings 

 are from material of the original collection of Endres. 



To Vittaria minima may be accorded the distinction of being 

 the simplest species in the genus, and it is also one of the few 

 species of Vittaria which can be adequately differentiated by a 

 knowledge of its more evident characters of size and venation. 

 There is no other American species with which it need be confused, 

 and the smallest Old World species, V. sikkimensis Kuhn, has a 

 different outline and texture and bears the sporangia in distinct 



