159 191 
preceding species, it may perhaps be best known from its soft pubescence by long, 
whitish, shining hairs, which are said to burn. Under-surface and indusium glan- 
dulose, veins free. 
200. Dryopteris mollis (Jacq.) Hieron. Hedwigia 46: 348. 1907. 
Syn. Polypodium molle Jacq. Coll. 3: 188. 1789; Ic. pl. rar. tab. 640. 
Dryopteris parasitica O. Ktze.; C. Chr. Ind. 282 with synonymy. 
Nephrodium quadrangulare Fée, Gen. 308. 1850—52. 
Aspidium purusense Christ, Hedwigia 45: 192. 1906. 
Dryopteris Limonensis Christ, Fedde, Repert. 8: 18. 1910. 
Jacquin described his species from specimens cultivated in the gardens of 
Schoenbrunn and I have seen a leaf therefrom in Herb. Sw. (S). In Ark. fór Bot. 
911; 26—28, fig. 4—5. 1910 I have pointed out that Pol. parasiticum L. from China 
can not be identified with P. molle Jacq., which is that **molle" form occurring in 
the West-Indies and West Africa and later on described as Aspidium violascens 
Link, characterized by the downwards narrowed lamina. 
D. mollis is closely allied to D. normalis; in size, texture, pubescence, structure 
and colour of the scales of the rhizome, sori and other characters the two species are 
much alike, but the rhizome af D. mollis is obliquely erect or short-creeping, not wide- 
creeping, in the typical forms the lower 2—3 pairs of pinnz are considerably 
shortened and the basal pair of veins is truly anastomosing. Still the species varies 
with regard to the two last named characters. The typical West-Indian form is 
rather small, thin-leaved and soft-hairy, the lamina gradually attenuate down- 
wards, the basal pair of veins anastomosing; in some continental forms the lamina 
is not at all narrowed and, as a rule, larger, but otherwise they agree with the 
type. I have tried to separate such forms as varieties or species but I have failed 
to find good dislinguishing characters, and now I prefer to refer all the different 
forms to one species, D. mollis. 
D. mollis is in America distributed from Alabama to Paraguay and Argentina, 
thus of the same range as D. patens. In the Old World very similar forms occur, 
which probably must be referred to the same species. The West African form, so 
common in Madeira, is exactly identical with the West-Indian form; the Polyne- 
sian form (Pol. nymphale Forst.) is somewhat different but scarcely more so than 
the American forms differ from each other. 
Below I enumerate a part of the specimens examined, especially such which 
were distributed with numbers. Some of the Costa Rican specimens were deter- 
mined by Curist as Aspidium prominulum Christ, Bull. L'Herb. Boiss. 4: 656. 1896; 
Bull. Soc. bot. Belg. 35: 212 = Dryopteris prominula C. Chr. Ind. 286, but they do 
not at all agree with the description; the species was founded on PirTier nr. 8198, 
which I have not seen; judging from the description it belongs to Goniopteris. — 
Asp. purusense Christ from Amazonas (HusBER nr. 4459) is a rather common, large 
form with the upper basal segments enlarged and lobed. 
95* 
ae 
