﻿Maxon: Polypodium 



ry slender, delicate 5- ^- Hessii. 



preceding, with smaller, 



I. Polypodium marginellum Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 130. 



Grammitis marginella Swartz, Jour. Bot. Schrad. iSoo^: 17. 1801. 

 Mecosorus marginellus Klotzsch, Linnaea 20: 405. 1847, in part. 



Type locality: High mountains of Jamaica. 



Distribution: Blue Mountains, Jamaica, at 1,500 to 2,100 

 meters elevation. 



Illustration : Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew. i : pi. 7 (as Grammitis 

 marginella) . 



As indicated in the key, Polypodium marginellum is very 

 strongly characterized by its long-forked veins and persistently 

 hirtellous surfaces, characters which distinguish it at once from 

 those allied species which have commonly been referred to it as 

 the same or as only subspecifically different. Jenman, who clearly 

 indicated its distinctness,* had seen no continental specimens; nor 

 has the writer, though there are several mainland records, in- 

 cluding a recent one for Costa Rica.f These probably relate to 

 P. nigrolimbatum Jenman. Thus, Wright, in writing of the ferns 

 of Mount Roraima,+ has listed certain specimens as P. marginellum, 

 with the remark: "Swartz says this species has "venis bifidis"; 

 subsequent authors describe the veins as simple, which is the case 

 with all the specimens at Kew." It is remarkable that true P. mar- 

 ginellum should be lacking at Kew, for it is decidedly the c 

 of the two Jamaican species. Of the four Roraima s 

 by Wright only one {McConnell & Quelch 568) has been seen ; this 

 is P. nigrolimbatum. 



The following specimens of P. marginellum, all from the Blue 

 Mountains, Jamaica, are in the National Herbarium: Hart 72; 

 Maxon 1335, 1476, 2676, 2709; Underwood 1518, 2494, 3190, 3200. 



* Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica II. 4: 69. 1897. 

 t Christ, Bull. Herb. Boisa. II. 4: iioi. 1904. 

 t Trans. Linn. Soc. II. Bot. 6: 83. 1901. 



