—19— 



of the plant itself exists in the Gray Herbarium at 

 Cambridge. 



Our new plant, which comes from Mexico, while 

 wholly different in its mode of growth, bears some resem- 

 blance to Troehopteris in its habit of bearing fruit on its 

 lowermost divisions instead of on an elongated panicle 

 distinct from the lamina as in typical Aneimia itself. 

 A very careful examination of the sporangia and spores 

 however shows that it is a very distinct small Aneimia 

 with an entirely different habit of fruiting from any 

 known species, and it might very properly be treated as 

 forming the nucleus for a new section. It appears to 

 be the smallest Aneimia yet discovered, the largest fronds 

 being scarcely more than two, or two and a quarter 

 inches long, and one-half of this is taken up by the stipe. 

 The distinctive character of the plant lies in its changed 

 lower pair of pinna?, these being completely transformed 

 into distinct sporophvlls resembling the small branches 

 of a typical Aneimia panicle. Kunze was of the opinion 

 that the genus Aneimia was characterized by the uniform 

 character of its spores, and judging from my own exam- 

 ination of the spores in A. adiantifolia, A. hirsuta and 

 A. tomentosa. in connection with our new species, this 

 would seem to be the case. 



In " Ferns of Xorth America." Prof. Eaton described 

 the spores of Aneimia as being special objects of great 

 beauty for microscopical study, and such I found them 

 to be. The sporangia, or capsules, are still more beauti- 

 ful, showing quite a range of color through the reds and 

 yellows in their rings, or caps, while the body of the 

 capsule is beautifully reticulated and transparent, show- 

 ing imprisoned spores very plainly. In the new fern the 

 cap is a brilliant orange-scarlet. 



It gives me much pleasure to dedicate this unique 

 and interesting fern to one who has made so many valu- 

 able additions to botanical science, and who is to be 

 congratulated on the present one : 



The new species will go under Hooker's Euaneimia, 

 but on account of its different manner of fruiting some 



