326 roLYroDiACE.E. 



acl marginem, haucl ad apicem siti, sub segmento singulo 1-8 valde immersi ; 

 cavis soromm ascendeutibus Imm. longis, oi'e clevato §mm. in diametro, circimi 

 oria hispidis. 



Hab. Mt. Arisau, proj^e Senninbora, leg. Taiceo Ito, Aprili. 1914. 



This new fern and Folypodium Kanashiroi Hatata are species helonging 

 to Prosaptia which is, according to the leading pteridologists, regarded to he a 

 suhgenus of Davallia. Yet, quite contraiy to the cun-ent opinion, I have herc 

 taken the ferns as species of Folypodixm. This rec^uires a faH exiilanation. 



Frosaptia is a genus which was estahlished by Presi.,'' as eariy as 1S36, 

 on the species Frosaptia contic/ua, which was then found in the Philippincs. 

 It is, as has been remarked liy scveral authors, a fern closely resembling Foly- 

 podium obliquatum in its external features, especially in its rhizomes, scales, 

 hairy stixx's and ft-onds, with much the same kind of division and vcnation. 

 But it lias bcen regarded by several lcading ptcridologists as widely different 

 from Polypodium in its fructification. It is, thcreforc, oftcn referred to as 

 represeuting a class of ferus which, tliough closel}' alike cxternally, shoidd be 

 treated as quite diifcrent systematically."^ The genus imder consideration is 

 assigncd to the vittariere by the foundcr, as it has a sorus located at the 

 margin of the frond as is the case with Vittaria. Fee^^ in his classical " Ex- 

 position dcs Fougcrcs " cxprcsses his opinion about thc natural jwsitiou of thc 

 genus and says that it might bc bctter placed in the DavallicEB, as it has 

 a soiiis somewhat resembling that of Davallia. Latcr ou, Sjiitu'" rcchiccs the 

 genus to Pohjpodium on the ground that it bears so close a relation to the 

 latter geuus that it should be regarded as insciiarable. Copel.and'^ retains 

 Frosaptia in the sense that the generic definition is to somc extcnt admis- 

 sible, so far as it is convcnient for systematizei-s, ancl he finally conchides that 

 Frosapitia is a goocl genus quite clearly defincd from Polypodium, although he 

 admits that Sjiith does not ^iolate the natural systcm in recbicing the formcr 



1) Pkesl, C. B— Tentamen PteriaograpliiT, (1836) p. 165. 



2) DiELS, L. — Pteruloiihvta, in Exglek u. Pkaxix, Kat. Pfl.-faiii. 1-4, p. 144. 



3) Fee, A. L. A. — Genera Filicum, Exposition des Gomis do la Famille des Pol ypodiac^es, 

 p. 324. 



4) SanTD, J. in IIookek's Jonrn. Bot. IV. (1842) p. 46, — I regret to say tliat I could not 

 read SinTH's paper, as it is not accessible to me. 



5) COPEI^-D, E. B.— in Pliilip. Joum. Scien. Sup].l. 1.(1906) p. 1-57. 



