Contributions to the Knowledge of the Asiatic 
Polypodiums, with special reference to the 
Chinese Species. 
BY 
mH. TAKEDA, DLC; 
Lately Demonstrator of Botany, Royal College of Science, 
In order to make my position quite clear, a few explanatory 
words at the beginning of the paper will perhaps not be out of 
place. While examining some Japanese Ferns at Kew, it was 
found necessary to compare them with certain Chinese species. 
Thus a good opportunity was afforded to the writer of study- 
ing a large number of Chinese Ferns which are not known 
from Japan. Carrying the investigation still further, and with 
a view to arrive at a definite conclusion, it was thought advisable 
for the writer to extend his investigation to East India and to 
some other parts of Asia. Accordingly, a vast number of 
specimens from different parts of Asia, and also, in certain cases, 
from extra-Asiatic regions, has been examined. In the present 
study, however, the writer has confined himself to the sub- 
genus Pleopeltis (in sensu Christensen). 
Attention has been directed particularly towards the Chinese 
species, this being the original intention of the paper. Several 
botanists have recently studied Chinese Ferns; _ especially 
Dr. H. Christ and Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., have made valu- 
able contributions in various papers, and Fleet-Surgeon C. G. 
Matthew, R.N., a EOE. indexed all the Ferns known 
from China up to z 
Now, the aparies of Pleopeltis occurring in temperate and 
subtropical Asia amount, according to Christensen’s useful 
Index, to about seventy in number. Of these the writer 
has taken the liberty of examining particularly those that 
required a careful revision. As a result of the investigation, 
it has been found that a considerable reform in nomenclature 
as well as in conception of certain species is unavoidable. 
It is surprising and much to be regretted that many a species 
has received more than one name either from different botanists 
or from the same authors. Consequently, about one-third of 
* Journ. Linn. Soc. xxxix (1911). 
[Notes, R.B.G., Edin., No. XXXIX, Jan. 1915.] 
