211 263 



var. 6. Not unlike 1). nicaraguensis but texture thinner and segments less fal- 

 cate, acute; lower pinnæ willi a long cuneate, entire base as in D. tristis. Rachis 

 and costæ beneath very shortly pulverulent by stellate hairs. Sori subcoslular, 

 setose by many multibranched hairs. Probably a new species, but the specimens 

 are too fragmentaric for a description. 

 Honduras: San Pedro Sula, 1500', C. Thieme ed. J. D. S. nr. 5693 part. (C, W). 



In Brazil several forms occur, which most authors have referred to D. /e/raj/ona, 

 but which are positively specifically different; see 1). scabra, D. incompleta and others. 



Nephrodium aureo-viridum Jenman, W. Ind. and Guiana Ferns 238. 1908 is, as far 

 as 1 can judge from a photograph and a fragment of Jenman's type-specimen (from 

 British Guiana), received from Miss Slosson, not safely distinguishable from D. te- 

 tragona. Its sori are said to be indusiate when young. 



263. Dryopteris megalodus (Schkuhr) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 21. 1903; 

 C. Chr. Ind. 277. — Fig. 41 a. 



Syn. Polgpodium megalodus Schkuhr, Kr. Gew. 1: 24 tab. 19 b. 1806. 

 Goniopteris quadrangularis Fée, 11 mém. 63 tab. 16 fig. 3. 1866. 

 (For other synonyms see Ind. Fil.). 



Schkuhr characterized this species by pointing out the presence of stellate 

 hairs on the underside; as the species here named Ü. megalodus differs from other 

 species of Eugoniopteris, I), leucophlehia excepted, by that character, and as Schkuhr's 

 plate very well illustrates our species, I have no doubt that I understand the spe- 

 cies of Schkuhr rightly. As suggested in Index Fil. Polgpodium pennatum Poir. 

 Enc. 5: 535. 1904 is probably the same species and, if so, Poiret's name has priority. 

 I have seen the original specimen of it in Herb. Lamarck (Mus. Paris) but unfor- 

 tunateh' my notes do not permit me to identify it with D. megalodus with absolute 

 certainty; it may be also D. nephrodioides. I prefer, therefore, to name the species 

 by that name, under which it has been known for a century. 



D. megalodus is not closely allied to D. teiragona, with which Baker united 

 it. It resembles that species mostly by its lower pair of veins anastomosing under 

 a broad angle. From D. glandulosa, with which it has very often been confounded, 

 it differs by its stellate hairs, venation and absence of aërophores. 



The short-creeping rhizome is sparsely clothed with castaneous, small scales, 

 which are stellato-pubescenl throughout. Stipe and rachis often quadrangular and 

 slightly puberulous by very small and soon deciduous stellate hairs. Pinnæ few, 

 seldom 10 to a side, distinctly stalked, 15 — 25 cm long, 3 — 4 broad, herbaceous, dark- 

 green, incised about '3 to the costa into falcate, obtuse, faintly crenate, close lobes, 

 glabrous above, costæ and veins beneath minutely puberulous by stellate hairs, leaf- 

 tissue of the underside with microscopic stellate hairs or glabrous. Venation some- 

 what variable; veins 12 — 16 to a side, simple, the basal pair always anastomosing 

 and sending a branch to a cartilagineous membrane, which extends from the sinus 



34* 



