570 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



centre. The influence of the Andine flora upon that of the eastern 

 mountains and plateaus is remarkable. There also was in the past a 

 streaming out of the neotropic ferns to Africa as far as the Mascarenes ; 

 but this can hardly be said to have been I'eciprocated in the reverse direc- 

 tion. Brazil is almost free from the influence of the Eastern hemisphere. 

 Mexico has certain affinities -with Asia and Europe, certain species even 

 reaching so far as Ecuador and the Southern Andes. A bibliography of 

 Brazilian fern-literature is supplied. 



Gr. Hieronymus * describes the collection of SelagineUct made by the 

 same expedition, one of the ten species enumerated being new. 



Ferns of Tropical America. — G. Hieronymus f pubHshes the second 

 part of his paper on the pteridophytes collected by Dr. Alfons Stlibel on 

 his journeys in South America, especially in Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, 

 and Bolivia. He enumerates 105 species, among which are 24 new 

 species and 17 new varieties. Several of the varieties are figured. 

 H. Christ I gives a brief account of a second collection of ferns gathered 

 in Mexico by G. Munch in Chiapias, the southern-most province of 

 Mexico. Four of them are new and are provided with descriptions. 

 With them is associated the description of a new Folypodium collected by 



C. A. Purpus at Pachuca, Mexico. 



Ferns of the Azores. § — H. Christ gives an enumeration of twenty- 

 eight ferns collected in the Azores by B. Carreiro with the view of 

 rendering the fern-flora of those islands more precise. Nineteen species 

 are common to the Azores and Madeira. Eleven species found in 

 Madeira, and six more found in the Canaries, are absent from the Azores. 

 These are of the xerothermic type, and their absence is conclusive as to 

 the different climate prevailing in the Azores. Also five of these species 

 are endemic in Madeira and three in the Canaries, whereas in the 

 Azores only a few varieties and sub-varieties are endemic. An Azorean 

 peculiarity markedly exhibited by some of the species, DicTcsonia culcita, 

 EIa])hofflossuni squamosum, Polystichum aculeatum, Asjndium paleaceum, 

 is the thick covering of scales on the stipes — a phenomenon still 

 unexplained. Among the eight cosmopolitan or European ferns of the 

 Azores, four are not found in Madeira. Three introduced species were 

 found : Gymnogramme calomelanos from tropical America ; Adiantum 

 hispididum from tropical Asia ; and a species of Biplazium, probably 



D. lasiopteris of the Nilgherries. This plant is described carefully. It 

 has been wrongly referred to Asplenium cremdatnm by Trelease. 



Philippine Ferns. |1 — E. B. Copeland gives a list of the ferns and 

 fern allies collected by E. D. Merrill on Mount Halcon in the Philippine 

 island Mindoro. This mountain, having an altitude of nearly 9000 ft., 

 is probably third in height in the Philippines, and has an unusually 

 heavy rainfall. It is notable for the absence of the savannah-wood zone, 

 the weak development of the high forest, the great development of the 



* Denkschr. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Ixxix. (1906) 2 pp. (1 table). 



+ Hedwigia, xlvi. (1907) pp. 322-64 (6 pis.). 



X Bull. Herb. Boissier, vii. (1907) pp. 413-16. 



§ Bull. Acad. Internat. G6ogr. Bot., xvi. (1907) pp. 152-60. 



II Philippine Jouru. of Sci. Manila, ii. (1907) pp. 119-51 (8 pis.). 



