470 Benedict : The genus Ceratopteris 



? Ceratopteris Richardii Brongn. Diet. Class. Hist. Nat. 3: 351. 

 1823. 



Slender plants, growing partly submerged : leaves slender, 

 up to 35 cm. long, the stipes slender, terete or flattened, 5-24 cm. 

 long: sterile leaves erect and emergent when mature, 8-18 cm. 

 or more long, the lamina oblong or deltoid, 4.5-9 cm. long, 4-5 

 cm. broad, 1-2-pinnate-pinnatifid, the pinnae varying from deltoid 

 below to lanceolate above, acute, the ultimate segments lanceolate 

 to deltoid : sporophyls somewhat taller, 10—35 cm - l° n g> tne 

 lamina 4 times divided, the ultimate segments linear, 0.5—2 cm. 

 long : sporangia in one row along each margin, the annulus few- 

 celled ; spores 32. [Figure 2.] 



Type from Trinidad, Lockliart. 



Specimens seen : Trinidad, no. 1 260 Botanical Garden Her- 

 barium, N ; Guiana : Leprictir, Cayenne, U, N ; Jcuman, Deme- 

 rara, Glen Island, Essequibo River, "growing in the lake with 

 Victoria; 1 U. 



Aside from the sporangial differences, this plant resembles C. 

 siliquosa considerably, but differs somewhat in general habit, 

 frequents apparently a different habitat, and is particularly unlike 

 the Old World species in the length of its stipes and in the short- 

 ness of its fertile segments. A figure of the Jenman sheet is shown 

 in figure 2. The sterile leaves are from a different plant from the 

 sporophyls and probably represent the floating stage. The Ca- 

 yenne sheet in the National Herbarium had been identified by 

 Leprieur as C. Richardii Brongn., but I have been unable to 

 verify this identification, so cannot vouch for its correctness. If 

 it proves to be authentic, Hooker & Greville's name will become 

 a synonym. 



3. Ceratopteris pteridoides (Hook.) Hieronymus, Bot. Jahrb. 



34: 561. 1905 



Parkeria pteridoides Hook. Exot. Fl. 2 : 147. 1825. 



Ceratopteris Parkeria J.Smith, Jour. Bot. Hook. 4: 70. 1S41. 



Plants growing floating or near shore and rooted in soil : leaves 

 of the floating plants up to 25 cm. long, the stipes expanded mid- 

 way, bulbous : lamina in earliest sterile leaves simple, ovate or 

 deltoid, in following leaves broadly 3-lobed, deltoid or rhombic, 

 in still later leaves pentagonal, 6-20 cm. long, 6-20 cm. broad, 

 1-3 times pinnatifid, with 2-4 pairs of primary divisions, the ulti- 



