— 294 



,N 



N' 



/ 



/" 



/ 



ferns with similarly shaped leaves the pinnae terminate in an en- 

 tire apex. 



To these morphological characters a remarkable physiological 

 peculiarity must be added, which seems to be of great importance, 

 as a proof of the validity of the genus. While tropical 

 ferns rarely are found infected by parasitic fungi a 

 large number of specimens of different species of Stig- 

 matopteris are injured by a black, incrusting fungus 

 which in a following paper will be described by Messrs. 

 Ferdinandsen and Winge. 



Besides these characters, it may be stated that all 

 species examined have a short, erect rhizome with 

 fasciculated, not articulated stipes. The leaf has a 

 long stem and a lanceolate or subdeltoid lamina with 

 pinnatifid apex; the texture is as a rule thinly herba- 

 ceous. All species are from tropical America. 



The position of the genus in the system must be 

 in the suborder Dnjopterideae, although in some re- 

 spects it approaches Polypodiwn, especially its subgenus 

 1 Goniophlebium. The nearest allied genus is, in my 



Vis. 1. Apex opinion, not Dryopteris, but Phanerophlehia , which 

 of pinna of has some characters common with Stigmatopteris, thus 

 a ^species of ^^ie quite hairless fronds, the shape of the lamina and 

 partly the venation. Still the species of PhanerophUbia 

 are not pellucido-punctate, their lamina has a terminal 

 pinna, the veins are free or anastomosing regularly and their apex 

 not clavate. 



The type of Stigmatopteris is Polypodium fiavopunctatum Klf., 

 which seems to be the same as Aspidium rotimdatum Willd. (Plum, 

 t. 38). The 8 first mentioned species are closely allied and can 

 only with difficulty be distinguished from each other. Each species 

 varies extraordinarily, and their limitation I have found more diffi- 

 cult to determine than that within other groups of Dryopterideae. 

 My attempt here published is not quite satisfactoj-y. The figures 

 will give an idea of the most common form of each species. Of 

 the next species (9—13) the same can be said. They seem to be 

 widely different from the first species, but they are as a fact closely 

 related to them and intermediate forms are found. In Brazil S. 

 prionites is connected by intermediates with S. caudata, in Andes 

 S. nephrodioides with 6'. ichtiosma. 



Stigmato- 

 pteris. 



