BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Vol. IV. APRIL, 1879. No. 4. 



Ophioglossum PAL>rATUM, Liiin. — A habitant of tropical America 

 from Cuba to South Brazil, and also of the Isle of Bourbon in the 

 Old World, this species was first d,etected within the limits of the 

 United States by Dr. Chapman, and was published in his enumera- 

 tion of new plants from the semi-tropical regions of Florida (Botan. 

 Gazette, Vol. Ill, p. 20). It does not appear to have been met with 

 by Dr. Garber, Mr. Curtiss, Mr. Shockley and others, whose recent 

 collections in East and South Florida have added many species to the 

 list of North American Ferns, and have verified to some extent the 

 prediction, that the Everglades, if ever thoroughly explored, would 

 contribute largely to our Crijptogamife. 



It was my good fortune, in March, 1878, to come across 0. palma- 

 tum; and the interest in finding it was enhanced by the fact that its 

 discovery by Dr. Chapman had not at that time been published. The 

 plant is probably quite rate, at least north of lat. 20 degrees, 40 min- 

 utes. In the course of an extended trip along the Gulf Coast region 

 from Cedar Keys to Charlotte Harbor, and up the Caloosahatchee 

 River, ninety miles, to its source near Lake Okeechobee, I observed 

 this pseudo Fern in only one spot: a Palmetto swamp about a mile 

 back from the north bank of the Caloosahatchee, some sixty miles 

 above Punta Rasa, and about eight miles west-north-west from the 

 old site of Fort Simmons. The locality seemed to offer no peculiar 

 conditions, beyond the fact that it exhibited no traces of having been 

 visited by fires. The only specimens found grew upon two Sabal Pal- 

 metto trees, fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, rooted in the axils 

 and under the sheaths of the dead petioles — much after the manner 

 of another epiphytal, a true Fern common in those parts, Pohjpodiuni 

 aureum. 



Omitting the characters of this species to be found in the descrip- 

 tions of authors, the following details, chiefly supplemental, are taken 

 from my specimens; and it is to be noted, that these are in every way 

 smaller, and have fewer lobes and spikes, than the specimens de- 

 scribed or figured from more tropical countries : 



Rhizome thick, fern-like, producing 1-3 fronds, mostly without 

 fruit; same root-stock sometimes bearing a persistent dead frond, a 



