Benedict: Revision of the genus Vittaria 401 



the veins immersed, but with a strong convexity over the midrib 

 along the ventral surface, the margins acute, plane, the leaf-trace 

 single, thick-reniform in section, branching in the very base of 

 the petiole to form the midrib and secondary veinlets, the veinlets 

 intersecting, 1.5 cm. apart along the margin, the marginal portions 

 forming a nearly straight line, the areolae with their axes parallel 

 to the midrib; soral line nearly straight, about 0.5 mm. from the 

 margin, sunken in a shallow open groove, the paraphyses numerous, 

 pyriform, becoming collapsed and wrinkled, the spores diplanate. 

 (Plate 15.) 



Type from Brazil: Organ Mts., Gardner 147, 1837. 



Specimens examined. Brazil: Organ Mts., Gardner 147 

 (scraps of type, U) ; Glaziou 3553 (C). Colombia: Santa Marta, 

 6000 ft., H. H. Smith 11 12 in part (several plants, U, N) ; Bogota, 

 Lindig 176, vide V. Karsteniana (U). Venezuela: Tovar, Fendler 

 25Q b (U, E). Ecuador: " crescit in silv. trop. et suband.," Sodiro 

 (U) ; Jameson 1116 (E) ; Ouitensian Andes, J. P. CoutJwuy 25, 

 1885 (E). British Guiana: Mt. Roraima, Mt. Roraima Expedi- 

 tion 212, 12 Nov. 1884 (N). 



Fee cites in addition: Mexico, Goudot, PI. Mex. and 

 Colombia, Moritz 1226. For V. Karsteniana Mettenius cites 

 specimens as follows, all from Colombia: San Pedro, prov. Ocafia, 

 Schlim 318; Bogota, altit. 2,800 m., La Pena, altit. 2,900 m., 

 Lindig 176; Quindio, altit. 3,000 m., Triana; Tolima, Goudot. 

 The type of V. gracilis is from Colombia: Tovar, Moritz 464. 



Vittaria Gardneriana and V. remota are species of similar habit 

 and appearance and are undoubtedly closely related to each other. 

 Broad leaves of V. Gardneriana are not easy to distinguish from 

 narrow leaves of V. remota, but in general, taking whole plants, 

 the differences in breadth of leaves, etc., appear sufficiently con- 

 stant to warrant the recognition of two species, especially as these 

 differences seem to accompany partly separated geographic 

 ranges. The material from Central America, where both species 

 occur, offers no special difficulties in differentiation, even in the 

 herbarium, and it is not unlikely that field study will discover 

 additional differences. V. Bommeri Christ, referred to later in 

 the present article as a species of uncertain identity, is apparently 

 of the same general size and shape as V. Gardneriana. 



