UNDERWOOD: AMERICAN FERNS 257 
Mexico from Orizaba and Chiapas southward to Guatemala, Costa 
Rica and Panama. It is not always possible to cite specimens 
from the miserable fragmentary tips which even some of the recent 
collectors bring back to herbaria after a laborious and expensive 
journey to add to the knowledge of our tropical flora. 
9. Dicranopteris furcata (L.). 
Pteris dichotoma L. Sp. Pl. 1076. 1753. Not Dicranopteris dicho- 
toma Bernh. 
Acrostichum: furcatum Syst.”-Nat- ed 16.>as F321- ° 3750. 
(Based on Plumier //. 28, the same as had previously served 
as the type of Pteris dichotoma.) 
Polypodium furcatum Sw. Jour. Bot. Schrad. 18007: 28. 1801. 
Gleichenia furcata Spreng. Syst. Nat. 4: 25. 1827. 
Mertensia furcata Willd. Vet. Ak. Nya Handl. 166. 1804. 
Mertensia grandis Fée, Mém. Foug. 9. 31. .1857 (nomen nu- 
dum); Mém. Foug. 11: 120. 1866. (Type from La Sou- 
fri¢re, Guadeloupe.) ; 
Rootstock unknown; upright stems stout, 5-6 mm. in diam- 
eter, covered above and when young with copious pale lanceolate 
scales ; primary branches forming an angle of 80°, with one or 
two pinnae on either side at the base of the internode, which is 3 
cm. long and scaly like the main stalk; occasionally forming a 
secondary branch with the second internode 6 cm. or more long, 
fully pinnate on both sides ; pinnae 12-20 cm. long, 4.5—6.5 cm. 
wide in the middle, narrowed slightly toward each end, elliptic, 
_the segments about 3 mm. wide, tapering mainly near the tips ; 
under surfaces nearly smooth except the rachises which are 
densely scaly ; 
Type Locatity: Morne de la Calebasse, Martinique; based on 
Plumier, pl. 28. 
Distripution: Craters of extinct volcanoes [ Martinique], 
Guadeloupe, and St. Kitts (Mt. Misery, Britton & Cowell 526). 
ILLusrration : Plumier, /oc. cit. 
This species has been strangely misunderstood and until the 
collection of fresh material by Britton and Cowell in 1900 it was 
impossible to correlate the species with other collections, especially 
of the Mertensia grandis Fée, which we have since seen in his 
Collection and which was evidently based on plants with rather 
Onger pinnae. The plants from St. Kitts exactly match the illus- 
