AN OVERLOOKED Dryopreris 45 
it is rather remarkable that although I have had large 
collections of Cuban ferns for study, I have not met 
with it before. I have little doubt that these small 
plants belong to a distinct species. Nevertheless, 
juvenile fruiting plants of a good many species of ferns 
look often very different from full-grown individuals, 
and it is sometimes a matter of doubt whether such 
small individuals are young plants of species that with 
age grow much larger or, on the other hand, represent 
really good, distinct species. In the present case it is 
possible that D. crypta is a small form of D. guadalu- 
pensis (Wikstr.) C. Chr. (Mon. I, p. 213). Smaller 
forms of this species come very near to D. crypta in 
several characters, especially in general habit and in 
cutting of the lamina, but there are some differences 
which make it advisable not to unite D. crypta with 
D, guadalupensis. In the former the stipe and midrib 
are, as in D. guadalupensis, stellate-pubescent but are, 
besides, furnished with longer simple deciduous hairs, 
which are not met with in most forms of D. guadalupen- 
sis; in the variety setulosa C. Chr. (Mon. II, p. 25), 
from Haiti, these are, however to be found. The 
margins of D. crypta are ciliate and the surfaces gla- 
brous; in D. guadalupensis the margins are not ciliate, 
and the surfaces are stellate-pubescent along the veins. 
In D. crypta the veins are nearly always free, being 
simple or forked; very rarely two veins are united. 
In D. guadalupensis the lower veins always form a 
costular areole, even in small leaves which in size and 
cutting are similar to leaves of D. crypta. The sori of D. 
crypta are slightly immersed in the thick substance of 
blade and are quite exindusiate; the sporangia are 
glabrous. In most specimens of D. guadalupensis a 
stellate-pubescent indusium is found. 
From these differences it seems fully justifiable to 
regard D. crypta as a valid species. The four collections 
