36 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Ovules 4, or 2 and superimposed ; fruit loculicidal. 

 Seeds with endosperm, sessile or nearly so ; stij^ma 1. 



SCROPHULABIACEAE. 

 Seeds without endosperm, on conspicuous thick funicles ; stig- 

 mas usually 2 ACANTHACEAE. 



Ovules more than 4 in each cell. 

 Ovary 1-celled ; placentae central. 



Seeds large; stamens 4; leaves compound. Plants often scandent. 



BIGNONIACEAE. 



Seeds small ; fertile stamens 2 ; leaves simple GESNERIACEAE. 



Ovary 2-celled; placentae axillary. 



Leaves compound BIGNONIACEAE. 



Leaves simple. 



Corolla induplicate-valvate or plicate-imbricate SOLANACEAE. 



Corolla plicate (but not imbricate) in bud. 



Seeds inserted on large thick funicles ACANTHACEAE. 



Seeds sessile or nearly so SCBOPHULARIACEAE. 



ANNOTATED CATALOGUE. 



1. GLEICHENIACEAE. Vine-fern Family. 

 (Contributed by Mr. William R. Maxon.) 



References : Sturm, Gleicheniaceae, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 1^: 217-238. j)l. 11. 

 1859 ; Underwood, A preliminary review of the North American Gleicheniaceae, 

 Bull. Torrey Club 34: 243-262. /". 1, 2. 1907; Maxon, Gleicheniaceae, N. Amer. 

 Fl. 16: 53-63. 1909. 



Xerophilous ferns, mostly with branched creeping rhizomes; fronds usually 

 ascending or reclining, numerous, somewhat vinelike, of indefinite growth, 

 entangled, often forming dense impenetrable low thickets ; primary axis naked ; 

 primary branches 1 to many pairs, opposite, determinate or (in most species) 

 once to several times dichotomous. the included bud dormant or producing 

 .secondaiy and tertiary axes like the primary one; ultimate brandies (pinnae) 

 usually in pairs, bipinnate, pinnate, or deeply pinnatifid, the segments mostly 

 elongate in our species (minute and rounded in the Old World Gleichenm) ; 

 veins free, forked; sorsi dorsal or (in Gleichenia) terminal upon the veinlets, 

 nonindusiate; sporangia sessile, short, 2 to many, opening by a vertical fissure. 



1. DICRANOPTERIS Bernh. Neues Journ. Bot. 

 Schrad. 1': 38. 1806. 

 Widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. 

 In tropical America many of the species grow rankly in the greatest profusion, 

 often occupying wide areas of open or thinly shaded mountain slopes to the 

 exclusion of other vegetation. A mass of the wiry interlacing fronds, with a 

 blanket thrown over it, makes an excellent bed for the collector. 



Primary branches bipinnate, the rachis not forked 1. D. bancroftii. 



Primary branches once or several times forked. 



Internodes of primary branches noriually naked ; veins 2 to 5-forked ; sori 

 multisporangiate ; rhizomes with spreading articulate hairs. 

 Accessory pinnae (a ixiir) borne at all but the ultimate nodes. 



2. D. flexuosa. 



Accessory pinnae wanting -3. D. pectinata. 



Internodes of primary branches at least partially pectinate; veins once 

 forked ; sori 3 to 5-sporangiate ; rliizomes with ciliate scales. 



