TWO NEW FEKN8 OF THE GENUS POLVrODlUM, FROM 



JAMAICA. 



By William R. Maxon, 



Aid ill. < 'ri//ilo</(iiiilc Fxitdiiji, llirisldii nj' J'lmiJs. 



The two species of Poly[)odiuiii here described as new were g-athercd 

 in the l^hie jMountains of Jamaica by Prof. L. M. Underwood and the 

 writer in the si)ring- of 1903. F5oth were fairl}^ well characterized by 

 Jennian in his synoptical list of the ferns and fern allies of Jamaica, 

 but were, however, associated wrongly by him, in the one case with an 

 extralimital species, in the other with South American plants doubt- 

 fully the same and, at any rate, under an untena])le name. The wi-iter 

 is indebted to Professor Underwood for the privilege of examining the 

 material of the Jenman herbarium now preserved in the collections of 

 the New York Botanical Garden. 



Polypodium rigens sp. nov. 



Plant l.VSScnL high, with 10-1,5 slender rigid fronds: rhizome about 4 

 muL thick, elongate, short-creeping or ascending, ihv gray isji incons{)ic- 

 uous chaff noticeably iridescent under a lens, narrow, long-acuminate: 

 stipes 2-4.5 cm. long, rigid, for the most part closely set, dark 

 brownish, thickly covered with long spreading ])right-brown hairs: 

 laminje 13-23.5 cm. long, 1-2 cm. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate, 

 tapering from near the middle to ))othapcx and l)ase, erect but usually 

 arcuate toward the apex, dark-green above, conspicuously ligiitcr 

 on the under surface, coriaceous, opaque, cut to the black isji rachis 

 into 1:5-60 pairs of alternate approximate pinnae; pinna' exactly oblong, 

 regularly rounded at th(> apices, the largest (near the middle of the 

 lamina) 10 mnu by 3.5 mm., decreasing in size very gradually above 

 to give rise to a terminal cauda, which is crenate and finally entire, 

 decreasing rather more a])ruptly below, the lowermost pinna' minute 

 (2 nun.), slightly more distant, more or less subopposite and dilated 

 upon the upper side; the upp(M- two-thirds of the lamina sorifcrous, 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVII— No. 1374. 



741 



