TWO LORD HOWE ISLAND POLYPODIA. 



TWO LORD HOWE ISLAND POLYPODIA. 

 By the Rev. W. Walter Watts. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, Deeember 1, 1915.~\ 



In the earlier determinations of the Ferns of Lord Howe 

 Island, too much appears to have been taken for granted ; 

 and, unfortunately, the two short papers published by me 

 in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales, 1 in 1912 and 1914, rested upon the decisions of the 

 earlier pteridologists, save in two cases, which resulted in 

 the publication of Asplenium bulbiferum, var. hoiveanum, 

 var. nov., determined earlier, at least in Sydney, as Asplen- 

 ium pteridoides Bak.; and Polystichum Whiteleggii, sp. 

 nov., known earlier as Aspidium capense (Polystichum 

 adiantiforme). Recently I have seen reason to question 

 the correctness of the view, that the two Polypodia, of the 

 section Grammitis, found on the island, are respectively 

 P. australe (R. Br.) Mett. and P. Hookeri Brack. My 

 scepticism related, first, to the supposed P. Hookeri, but 

 soon extended to the associated species. 



I. Polypodium Hookeri Brack, belongs to a series of 

 ferns, mostly tropical or subtropical, which have been 

 involved in considerable confusion. They belong to the 

 Grammitis group, i.e., small Polypodia with undivided 

 fronds; and they are clothed, more or less densely, with 

 reddish-brown hairs. Dr. Christ 2 makes of them a Section 

 "Setigera," but selects, for mention, only P. setigerum Bl. 

 and P. Hookeri Brack. P. Hookeri was named P. seti- 

 gerum by Hook, and Arn. in 1832, they having apparently 

 overlooked Blume's P. setigerum published in 1828; the 

 name was changed by Brackenridge in 1854. 



1 Vol. xxxvn, part 3, and Vol. xxxix. part 2. 

 2 Die Frankrauter der Erde, 1897, p. 78. 



T— December 1, 1915. 



