474 Benedict: The genus Ceratopteris 



broad, broadly deltoid, acute, the margins broadly and shallowly 

 lobed, viviparous in the sinuses and in the axils of the larger 

 divisions, the venation reticulate, the areolae without included 

 veinlet, narrow: fertile leaves 40-65 cm. long, the stipes 15-20 

 cm. long, the lamina deltoid, 30-40 cm. long, 25-37 cm. broad, 

 4 times pinnately divided, the ultimate segments linear, falcate, 

 0.5-2 cm. long, 0.5-2 mm. broad, the ultimate and penultimate 

 divisions viviparous in the axils, with narrow evenly revolute mar- 

 gins, each covering a single row of sporangia. [Figure 3.] 



Type from Jamaica, Orange Bay River, N. L. Brit ton & Arthur 

 Hollick 2158, 14 March, 1908, — in the Underwood Fern Her- 

 barium. Collected at the same time and place by Harris, no. 

 10,255. Also collected in Jamaica by Jenman, Clarendon, 1874- 



■ 79- 



Additional material : 



Porto Rico: " Coamo in fossis," 1886, P. Sintenis 3277, N. 

 Consists mostly of sporophyls ; ultimate segments of the sterile 

 leaves lanceolate. Spores possibly sometimes fewer than 16 per 

 sporangium. 



Florida : A. P. Garber, Prairie Creek, So. Florida, July, 1878. 

 E. (Vide D. C. Eaton, Bull. Torrey Club 6: 264. 1878.) Only 

 sterile leaves seen, these with somewhat narrower segments than 

 those of the type. 



Louisiana : R. S. Cocks, Shores of Lake Ponchartrain, rooting 

 in mud, 1890, U. Hasse, in water, New Orleans, 1885, U — an 

 imperfect specimen, with the segments narrower than in the type. 



Guiana : Jenman, Demerara, coast lands, intrenches, 1895. 

 U. Only sporophyls seen. 



There seems at present little reason to doubt that all this ma- 

 terial may be comprised in one species, but for the purposes of 

 greater exactness, only the Jamaican material was considered in 

 drawing up the above description. The only modification made 

 necessary by the inclusion of the remaining collections is in con- 

 nection with the width of the sterile segments as noted in the 

 various citations. As far as I have seen, this is the only species 

 in which the number of spores is typically 16 to each sporangium. 



In the type locality, the Orange Bay River is, as I learn from 

 Dr. Britton, a small clear flowing stream, a foot or two in depth. 

 The plants grew abundantly for some distance along the river, 



