386 W. W. WATTS. 



Blume, 1 in 1828, had described and figured several species 

 of this group; but Hooker, 2 in 1862, in a note following his 

 description of Polypoclium hirtum Hook., said, "The 

 smaller Indian grammitoid Polypodia, if I may so call them, 

 are attended with great difficulty in their study, and 

 neither the costly figures nor the descriptions of Blume 

 tend so much as they ought to do to remove the difficulties." 

 Mettenius, he adds, referred to three of Blume's species as 

 belonging to Grammitis hirta Bl. Christensen (Index Fil.) 

 identifies Blume's G. hirta (also G. setosa Bl.) with Poly- 

 podium diplosorum Christ (1896). Hooker, in describing 

 his own Poly podium hirtum, expressed a doubt as to 

 whether it was the P. hirtum of Mettenius (vide supra). 

 Christensen, loc. cit., makes Hooker's P. hirtum cover three 

 separate species, viz., P. diplosorum Christ, P. Rein- 

 ivardtii (Bl.) Pr., and P. pubinerve (Bl.) Christ. The 

 result of all this is, that the name, Polypodium hirtum, has 

 lost validity, and has disappeared, except as a synonym. 

 This example of the difficulties that beset the "grammitoid 

 Polypodia" is given, because, curiously enough, while in the 

 Sydney National Herbarium the Lord Howe plant is labelled 

 P. Hooker i, in Hooker and Baker's Synops. Fil., p. 320, one 

 of the localities given, for P. hirtum Hook., is "Lord Howe's 

 Island, C. Moore." In my opinion, the Lord Howe hairy 

 Grammitis differs, in essential respects, from any of the 

 described species within my knowledge, and must be 

 regarded as a new species. 



Polypodium (Grammitis) pulchellum, sp. nov. 

 (P. Hooker i Brack, et P. hirtum Hook, in Herbariis err.) 



Rhizoma robustiusculum, subrepens vel subadscendens, densis- 



sime nbrillosum, ssepe cum parvis discis (ostendentibus casorum 



bases stipitum) multo prseditum, apice dense paleaceum, paleis 



subintegris, brunneis, a basi lata lineari-lanceolatis, acumine in 



1 Enuro. Fil. jav. p. 106 ff. 2 Sp. Fil., iv, p. 170, fig. 273 A. 



