Underwood: American ferns 199 



Tectaria minima sp. nov. 



Rootstock creeping, knotty ; leaves subcespitose, with slender 

 smooth stramineous stalks 6-18 cm. long; lamina triangular, in 

 larger leaves broadly so, 6-10 cm. long, 3-9 cm. wide, lobed at 

 the base or in larger leaves bearing a pair of separate pinnae which 

 are again slightly lobed below ; margin of the terminal portion 

 deeply crenate-incised in young leaves, in age becoming more 

 deeply incised and with pointed rather than rounded divisions ; 

 veins everywhere irregularly areolate with numerous free included 

 veinlets ; main veins slightly fibrillose ; sori arranged in a some- 

 what irregular row on either side the main lateral veins with occa- 

 sional ones in the outlying space ; indusium usually circular with 

 a slit on one side forming a narrow sinus which is more often 

 obscured by the overlapping folds. 



Specimens have been examined as follows : 



Florida : Hammocks between Cutler and Longview Camp, 

 1903, Small & Carter 833 (type) ; 10-14 miles south of Cutler, 

 A. A. Eaton 260. 



Bahamas: Conch Sound, Andros, Northrop 362a; Near 

 Nassau, New Providence, A. H. Curtiss 142 ; Farringdon Road, 

 New Providence, E. G. Britton 3198 ; Abaco, Brace 18 13. 



Cuba : Yumury, Rugel 2 ; near Ibarra, Britton & Skafer 344.. 



This species has been passed over in herbaria for young forms 

 of Tectaria heraclcifolia (Willd.), but proves to be a distinct spe- 

 cies differing in habit, in size, in texture, in the character of the 

 venation, and in the indusia, which are not strictly peltate as in 

 that larger and more common species. Small leaves resemble 

 those of T. coriandrifolia, but differ (1) in being sharp-pointed in- 

 stead of blunt at the apex, (2) in the longer pointed basal lobes in 

 marked contrast with the short rounded ones of Tectaria coria/t- 



ifolia 



Grisebach has marked the sheet 



collected by Rugel as " Aspidium fimbriatum Willd./' but if we 



can trust Plumier's plate zjp this is a species widely different and 

 wholly unknown in our day, and one which is to be looked for in 

 future collections from Hispaniola. 



[The plant hitherto known as Tectaria trifoliata in Florida 

 and the West Indies cannot henceforth bear that name. The 

 true Tectaria trifoliata, based on Plumier's plate 14.8, proves to be 

 a wholly distinct species. This was suspected by some of the 

 earlier writers on ferns, but still others have maintained that the 



