2 _ SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



third expedition (the most interesting of all to a collector of ferns) 

 along: a comparatively recent path, known from the name of the 

 surveyor as *' Holcomb's trail," which, though never wholly com- 

 pleted, was designed to cross the Divide to the northern (Atlantic) 

 coast. It was upon this last trip that the peculiar species here to 

 be described was collected. The first day's route lay wholly along 

 the Rio Caldera, " Camp I " being some ten or twelve miles from 

 El Boquete and in the midst of wet virgin forest at an altitude 

 of about 1,625 meters. The second day's route proceeded through 

 an even more humid forest above the Rio Caldera over a labori- 

 ously constructed trail, which is rapidly becoming obliterated, to 

 the summit of the Divide at a point previously determined as about 

 1,925 meters above sea-level. " Camp II," which lies a short dis- 

 tance farther on and below, upon the Atlantic side, was not visited 

 from lack of time. My collections for this day, which were very 

 large, consisted entirely of material gathered between " Camp I " 

 and the Divide. Among the many noteworthy pteridophyta col- 

 lected, several of them new, none approaches in interest the species 

 here to be described. 



The first specimen of this peculiar species was secured at perhaps 

 1,750 meters elevation, on the trail referred to, above "Camp I," and 

 from there all the way to the summit an occasional plant or tuft 

 of plants would be found upon the smooth trunks of palms or other 

 forest trees, usually at a distance of from two to six meters from 

 the ground. The fact that the plant, though nowhere abundant, 

 was sufficiently widespread to be encountered over an area of several 

 miles, may safely be taken to indicate that the peculiar position of 

 the sori, though apparently unique within the genus, is nevertheless 

 normal for the species. The elongation of the pinnae and their 

 repeated division in a great majority of the fronds is discussed later, 

 following the description. The species may be known as: 



POLYPODIUM PODOCARPUM Maxon, new species 



Plants epiphytic, the fronds pendent, usually numerous, closely 

 fasciculate, 25 to 55 cm. long, subpinnate, the pinnae sometimes 

 simple, but mostly several to many times divaricately branched, 

 both lamina and pinnae of slow indeterminate growth. Rhizome 

 prostrate or decumbent, rather slender and short, up to 4 cm. long, 

 4 to 6 mm. in diameter, the older portion clothed with the imbri- 

 cated bases of numerous dead fronds, the crown bearing a few nearly 

 concealed lanceolate, plicate, cucullate or subtubulose, entire, bright 

 brown scales 3 to 5 mm. long ; stipes stoutish, greenish from a dull 



