THE FERN BULLETIN 



Vol. XIX JULY, 1911 No. 3 



LIBRARY 



DRYMOGLOSSUM CARNOSUM. 



By Willard N. Clute. Botanicaj 



One of the drawbacks to popular fern study in the 

 Tropics is the fact that very few of the species have 

 common names. Thus it happens that the little fern 

 which is the subject of this article is known by a name 

 almost as long as itself. The fact that it has no com- 

 mon name also indicates that it is known chiefly to 

 scientists who seldom look with favor on names in the 

 vernacular. It is, however, not uncommon in suit- 

 able situations across a considerable stretch of country 

 but its small size and lack of usefulness conspire to 

 render it insignificant in a region where other ferns 

 abound. 



Drymoglossum carnosum belongs to a small genus 

 of plants that until recently was considered to be con- 

 fined to the warmer parts of the Old World. Two 

 species, however, have now been reported from the 

 American Tropics, and if the species makers do not 

 soon re-arrange them in some other group we will find 

 it necessary to consider the genus as circumtropical. 

 The danger that the American species may be removed 

 to other -genera is possibly not very remote, for even 

 the species here discussed has had a somewhat check- 

 s' e red career appearing in various works as an Acrosti- 

 chum, a Taenitis, a Ptcris, and in several other dis- 

 guises. It belongs to that peculiar group of ferns in 

 3<l which the sporangia spring from the veins without the 

 Z protection of an indusium and out of which have been 



