150 98 



161. Dryopteris euchlora (Sod.) C. Chr. Index 263. 1905. - Fig. 16 e. 



Syn. Polypodium euchlorum Sodiro, Rec. 58. 1883. Cr. vase. quit. 290. 1893. 



Type from Ecuador, Mt. Pululahua, leg. Sodiko (specim. auth. in Kew!); 

 also Mt. Pichincha, Stübel nr. 751 (B). 



A very large species with a stipe 60 — 70 cm long and a lamina of equal 

 length. Rhizome apparently creeping; stipe brownish-stramineous, glabrous and 

 clothed with scattered, adpressed scales, in the upper part bearing 4 — 5 pairs of 

 tuberculiform, very distant abortive pinnæ. Developed pinnæ numerous, the lowest 

 1 — 2 pairs much abbreviated (Type IV), the following alternate at distances of 

 4 — 5 cm, the upper ones closer, fresh-green, membranous but thin, very sparsely 

 strigose on the costæ above, otherwise like the straw-coloured rachis quite glabrous, 

 but costæ beneath furnished with small, scattered, deciduous scales. Largest pinnæ 

 up to 20 cm long, 3 3'/4 cm broad, the lower ones very contracted at base, incised 

 to a wing 1 — 2 mm broad. Segments patent, linear, 5 mm broad the apex rounded 

 or subacute and generally faintly toothed, the basal ones of lower pinnæ much 

 reduced, of the upper equal or the anterior one somewhat shortened. Veins 15 — 18 

 jugate, simple, not very close. Sori medial, small, exindusiate; sporangia glabrous. 



In size, shape of segments, reduction of lamina and contracted base of lower 

 pinnæ allied to D. piloso-hispida but very different by thin texture, glabrous frond 

 and medial sori. Together with D. Glaziovii it is intermediate between the bipin- 

 natifid species of the group of D. rudis and the bipinnate D. pteroidea. 



D. atropurpurea Hieron. (supra nr. 114) I fear should be referred to D. euchlora. 

 It has fewer veins, distinctly crenate segments and atropurpureous rachis, otherwise 

 it is not essentially dilTerent. 



A Central-American fern, fragments of which I have known for a long time, 

 and which was collected recently by Maxon in Panama, I can now with certainty 

 refer to D. euchlora as 



var. inaequans nov. var. — Fig. 16 f. 



Agrees perfectly with the type in size and texture, its practically glabrous 

 frond, reduction of lamina and base of lower pinnæ, that are very remote, in shape 

 of segments, number of veins, etc. It differs from the type by its opposite pinnæ 

 and the segments being often crenate (like those of D. atropurpurea), but the main 

 difference is the unequal-sided pinnæ, the basiscop side of which is broader than 

 the acroscop one (2'/-' cm and 2 cm in the lower pinnæ) with 15 — 16 veins to a 

 side in a basiscop segment, 11 — 13 in an acroscop one. — Rhizome creeping Vli 

 cm thick, slightly scaly at the growing apex. 



Panama, Canal Zone, humid forests, Chiriqui, 1650 to 1925 m, Maxon nr. 

 5674 (W). 



Nicaragua, Omotépé Island in Lake Nicaragua, U.S.North Pacific Exploring 

 Expedition 1853—56 (W). 



By its unequal-sided, very distant, opposite pinnæ this variety looks very diffe- 



