Vol. 33 



BULLETIN 



No 12 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



DECEMBER, 1906 



American ferns — VII 



Lucien Marcus Underwood 



A. The American species of Stenochlaena 



A short time since we presented an account of the species of 

 Stenochlaena from the Old World,* stating that the American 

 species would form the subject of a later paper. We present 

 herewith a synopsis of the known American species, all of which 

 belong to the section Lomariopsis. Instead of ten species as 

 estimated at that time, we are forced to recognize twelve ; besides 

 these there are several collections which do not seem to fall within 

 the limits of any of the described species, and we have set these 

 aside for further information dependent on more extended explora- 

 tion in the regions where they have already been collected a single 

 time. A list of these possible candidates for recognition as species 

 is given at the end of this paper under the Species inqiiirendae. 

 All the following species are included under Acrostic/mm sorbi- 

 folium in the Synopsis Filiaim of Hooker and Baker, as was also 

 the case with the greater part of the species of the Old World as 

 discussed and in part figured in our previous paper. One purpose 

 of binomial names is to enable botanists to refer definitely to some 

 particular well-defined plant. There are some, commencing with 

 Goethe, who maintain that this is the only raison d'etre of species 

 in the text-books anyway. Now if a single name like Acrostichum 

 sorbifolium is allowed to stand for a series of twenty-five distinct 

 .and recognizable groups of plants, each found in some definite 

 quarter of the tropical world, somewhere from Florida to Brazil, 



* Bull. Torrey Club 33 : 35-50. 1906. 



[The Bulletin for November 1906 (33 : 541-59°, P'- 18-26) was issued 19 D 



1906.] 



591 



