NO. 1374. TWO NEW FERNS FROM JAMAJCA—MAXuy. 743 



Polypodium aromaticum sp. nov. 



Plant ii<;id, 15-20 cm. liioh: rliizomc .stout, .siiherect, con.si(l«'ral)lv 

 elongate, with abundant dark-hrown lanceolate attenuate ehaiV, and 

 bearing- numerous closely set fronds imbricated nuich after the manner 

 of Kliip]i(>glt>i<!«iiii huacssaro: stipes averaging 3 cm. long, dull- 

 brownish, hispid by scattering short spinescent hairs whicii from their 

 fragility early impart a tuberculate appearance: lamin;e pinnate, 

 about 13-17 cm. long, at most 4 cm. broad, erect, coriaceous, opaque, 

 narrowly oblanceolate, giving rise rather abruptly to a terminal cau- 

 date segment 2-3 cm. long, which is subentire except at the coarselv 

 serrate base; rachis hispid on both surfaces throughout similarlv to 

 the stipe; pinna? about 35 pairs, distinctl}' alternate, linear, strongly 

 revolute, 2-2.5 mm. broad, nearly or (piite their width apart, entire, 

 falcate, fully adnate to the blackish rachis, dilated at the upper side, 

 the apices acute; the lower pinna' gradually reduced, the lowermost 

 not minute, 5-7 mm. long, extremely brittle; venation free, the dis- 

 tinctl}' ])lack midveins bearing 8-13 pairs of obscure siujple obli(|ue 

 veins which approach the margin; sori 0-12 i)airs to the pinna, borne 

 at half the distance to the margin. 



Type in the herbarium of the New York Botujiical Garden; collected 

 on Blue Mountain Peak, Jamaica, at an altitude of lt)50-2225 meters b}' 

 L. M. Underwood, no. UJf9, February 11-12, 1003. There is a frag- 

 ment of the type specimen in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 

 42.sl:20. Other specimens to be referred to this species are: Under- 

 wood no. llfOO and Under'wood no. '21^90., both from the sunmiit of 

 Blue Mountain Peak, and Maxon no. 13It,6a from the highest sloi)es of 

 John Crow Peak, altitude 1650-1800 meters. There is additionally a 

 single sheet in the Jenman herbarium. 



Jamaican specimens of this species were referred by Jenman" to 

 Pol II podium Jirniani Klotzsch,'' founded upon material from Chile and 

 Guiana. They accord only inditi'erently with Klotzsch's description; 

 and in any event the earlier Polypod'mui ji ninnn of Kaulfuss,'' a})plied 

 to a very different [)lant from Australia, precludes use of the name. 



There is a specimen in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 2im>(;5(>, 

 collected at Songo, Bolivia, November, 1890, by Miguel Bang, no. i»Ol 

 (distributed as P.plunnda)., which is identical with the Janiiiican ])lants 

 here described as P. arovuitlcuni; and it has, moreover, after a lapse 

 of more than ten years the peculiar aromatic odor noted in these. 

 It may indicate a general distribution of P. (iroin<(t!vuni in South 

 America; but whether or not it represents the P.jirnutni of Klotzsch 



«Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica 4: 123.1897. 



t> Poll/podium firmum Klotzsch, Linii;t'a27: ."iTS. 1,S47. 



■''Kaulfuss, Wescn dor Farronkr. 100. ISI'7. 



