16 American Fern Journal 



fine or graceful to attract the interest of fern growers. 

 There can be no doubt that this fern was native where 

 collected. We have thus a species, genus, and family 

 added to the known flora of the United States. 



In response to my request for further information, 

 Mr. McNeill wrote again (July 5, 1913) as follows: 



"The date upon which I found the plant was June 

 15, 1913. It was found on 'Mon Louis Island', which 

 is a piece of land some twenty-five square miles in extent, 

 separated from the mainland by Fowl River, a bayou 

 connecting Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound. It 

 is 'pine barren' country, traversed by numerous 'gum 

 branches 7 (small fresh-water streams fed by springs, 

 and usually dry in mid-summer), the south end being 

 deeply indented with areas of salt marsh. It is clay 

 formation and will hardly average more than twenty 

 feet above mean low water." 



fl 



described from 



Brazil and has been found to have a wide distribution 



in tropical America. It is common in the Greater 



Antilles but less so in the Lesser Antilles. On the 



continent it has heretofore been known to extend from 



southern Mexico to Brazil and to occur mainly at low 



elevations, ascending rarely to 1,500 meters altitude. 



As to the source of the Alabama specimens it may safely 



be surmised that they arose from wind-blown spores 



from Cuba, a hypothesis which explains reasonably 



the similar occurrence of the many West Indian fern 



species discovered in peninsular Florida within recent 



years. It is Mr. McNeill's intention to make a search 



for additional stations of D. flexuosa and it will not be 



very surprising if he is succe ^ful not only in this but 



in finding also Bitch nmn occidentale and other ubiquitous 



lowland species not now known to occur in the United 

 States. 



It may be mentioned, in passing, that all our American 

 representatives of the family Gleicheniac ae fall under 



