194 POLYPODIUM FALCATUM.—SICKLE-LEAVED POLYPOD. 
more likely we are to make new ones. The ferns of the Atlantic 
States have been so well studied that any novel form is soon ~ 
referred to some well-known species ; but the ferns of the Pacific 
coast are not so well known, and thus when some peculiar-look- 
ing individuals are met with it is uncertain what the botanist will 
do with them. Our present plant is as yet one of these doubt- 
ful plants. It was first brought to notice by Dr. Kellogg, who 
exhibited specimens to the California Academy of Sciences, 
December 11th, 1854, from Mr. Swan, of Shoalwater Bay, Wash- 
ington Territory, and who named and described it as Polypodium 
falcaium at the meeting following, December 18th. Next we 
find it in Professor Eaton’s hand from specimens received from 
Lieutenant A. V. Kautz, of the United States army, who collected 
it in Southwestern Oregon. Professor Eaton seems not to have 
detected the identity of these specimens with Kellogg’s descrip- 
tion, and so gave ita new name and description as /olypodium 
glycyrhiza in “Silliman’s American Journal of Science and Arts” 
for November, 1856 (vol. 22, p. 138), and not in July, as he states 
in his “ Ferns of North America.” Then the writer of this was 
furnished with excellent fresh specimens by Mrs. Fanny E. Briggs 
from LaCentre, Washington Territory, from which our drawing 
was chiefly made; and the only other record of any specimens 
that we have at hand is in the “check list of North American 
Ferns in Davenport Herbarium of the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society,” where specimens are reported as from “Oregon, 
1875; and from Washington Territory, 1876, Joseph Howell.” 
It will ke seen from this how very little is known of this fern, 
and from this it comes about that some authors write of it as 
“probably a variety of Polypodium Calrfornicum,’ others as 
“probably a variety of Polypodium vulgare,’ and others, as for 
instance Professor Eaton, as a distinct species. It is not our 
purpose to illustrate what may finally be considered mere 
varieties in our “Flowers and Ferns of the United States,” as 
no doubt many of the Pacific forms will come to be regarded; so 
we give this because, with Professor Eaton, we believe its specific 
