254 The Botanical Gazette. [May, 
ACROSTICHUM SPATHULATUM Bory. 
4964, mossy banks, Sierra de San Felipe, 7,300*, Oct. 6, 
894. 
ASPIDIUM ACULEATUM Swartz. 
5588, hills near Orizaba, Feb. 9, 1895. 5603, wet ravines, 
Sierra de San Felipe, 9,000%, Nov. 21, 1894. 6116, moist 
ravines, Sierra de San Felipe, 8,000, Dec. 26, 1894. 
Nowhere, does it seem to me, was the rare discriminating 
judgment of Sir William Jackson Hooker more clearly shown 
than in his disposition of the various forms of this protean 
species. 
In a species so widely distributed as this, inhabiting, as it 
does, ‘‘almost every part of the known world”, as extended a 
range of forms is to be expected, and it is not surprising that 
many supposed species should have originated from them. 
One can not, however, examine a great many of these forms, 
in the light of our present knowledge of the species, without 
becoming impressed with the fact that a certain type runs 
through the whole series, and that they all group themselves 
naturally around two forms, or types, which seem worthy of 
recognition. 
One of these has the lower pinnze reduced as in our var. 
Braunit, and of these /obatum is the type; the other has 4 
broad base, and of this angu/are furnishes the best type. 
lower pinne never dwindle away to mere auricles as , 
conterminum and Noveboracense group of Nephrodium, but al- 
ways preserve a certain breadth and distinctness as pinn®. 
ealand and southern antarctic” forms of the species: i 
Fil. 4: 22.) 5603 has a thinner, more herbaceous mar 
and fewer sori, due probably to the character of its env! 
ment. 
ASPIDIUM ATHYRIOIDES Mart. & Gal. 
Athyrium sphaerocarpum Fée 
Nephrodium pee! air dik Hk. 
