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47 
and JENMAN believed it to be D. nemorosa. A comparison of my. descriptions of it 
and D. nemorosa will show that the two species are closely related, agreeing with 
each other in most characters. D. meridionalis differs from D. nemorosa chiefly by 
its much larger leaf with more remote secondary pinnules, which are deeply toothed 
or loobed, by its weaker indusium and fewer and less bullate scales of the midribs. 
rom D.ampla and D. exelsa it differs greatly by several characters: shape of 
lamina and scales, no large tuft of basal scales, adnate secondary pinnules, etc. 
Guadeloupe, Herb. Willd. nr. 19807 (B); Forsstrém (S = A. frondosum Wikstr.), L’HERMINIER (B), 
Ducuassaine (B), Mazé (Kew). 
Martinique, Hann nr. 63 (CC, S). 
St. Kitts, BerKELEy (W) — Montserrat, Buc (B) 
Dutch W. Indies, Sunincar 1885 nr. 6174 (or 6194? U). 
2? Grenada, SHERRING?, see note under D. nemorosa. 
var. speluncae yar. nov. 
Smaller than the type, secondary pinnule closer, tertiary segments entire or the 
‘lower ones only toothed. Upper surface often with cylindrical glandular hairs as in 
D. hirta, underside finely glandulose. Scales of midribs more numerous, often some- 
what iridescent. 
A characteristic fern of the caves of Bermuda, rather variable in pubescence 
and size; some specimens come very near to D. nemorosa in habit, others are scarcely 
to be distinguished from true D. meridionalis, with which it, as a whole, agrees in almost 
all characters. — I have chosen the varietal name spelunce because it is an appro- 
priate one, not because I consider it to be Polypodium spelunce L., which is a Cey- 
lonese fern. In a small paper*) I have proved that PLUKENET’s pl. 244 fig. 2, which 
gives a bad figure of the present fern cannot be taken for the type of Pol. speluncee L. 
Most authors have referred the variety to D. ampla. 
Bermuda, frequently collected, f. inst. by Brown and Britron nr. 266, BRowN nr. 564, M. A. Howe, 
B. D. Gritperr (all W), Fartow (S); Rern nr. 89 (B). 
3. Group of D. ampla. 
A small group comprising half a dozen species of middle-size or rather large 
with the deltoid, decompound leaves fasciculated in a crown on the erect, sometimes 
subarborescent rhizome or trunk. The leaves are more or less’ scaly on stipe, ra- 
chises and larger midribs. beneath, and the top of the rhizome and the bases of 
the stipes are clothed with a large and dense mass of long, thin, intertangled scales. 
*) Polypodium speluncae L. A question of Seca. — Amer. Fern Journ. 8: 1—4. 1913. 
See also Arkiv for Bot. 9" pag. 6 
