AN INTERESTING JAPANESE POLYPODY,* 



By William R. Maxon. 



The subject of these notes is a Japanese fern described by 

 Franchet and Savatier as Polypodium vulgare var. JaponicumA 



Specimens in American herbaria referable to this form agree 

 closely and are so totally distinct from what is known either in 

 Europe or America as Polypodium vulgare that any observing 

 botanist, conservative or otherwise, may scarcely question their 

 claim to recognition as a valid species. The type specimens were 

 collected at Ono, a small town on Hondu, the principal island of 

 Japan, and at some locality (not mentioned) on Yezo, the north- 

 ernmost of the group, usually known as Hokkaido. They are said 

 by the authors to have grown "in rupibus, ad arbores, in silvis 

 regionis submontanae." The specimens to which I have had 

 access are as follows : 



Hakodate (or Hakodadi), Hokkaido. C. Wright, coll. (N, 

 E, G).t 



Sapporo, Hokkaido, 1878. Ex. herb. Sapporo Agric. Coll. (G). 

 Nanokawa, Tosa, Hondu. August 15, 1890. (G). 

 Sapporo, Hokkaido. A. W. Stanford, coll. July, 1894. (N). 

 Yoshino, Yamato, Hondu. May, 1888. (N). 

 Japan, W. P. Blake, coll. 1862. (E). 



Sapporo, Hokkaido, A. W. Stanford, coll. August, 1894. (Y). 

 From these specimens I am enabled to draw the following 

 description : 



Polypodium Japonicum (Fr. & Sav.) — Plant usually of small 

 stature, but ranging from 8-23 cm. in height; fronds borne 

 singly from a creeping brownish-chaffy rhizome; stipes 2-5 cm., 

 nearly smooth; laminae usually lanceolate, sparingly glandular, 

 the whole lower surface covered sparsely with long filiform 

 hyaline scales, most noticeable along the rachis and veins; 

 pinnae 12-28 pairs, borne from two to three times their width 

 apart, decurrent on either side at base, 2-3 cm. long, 2-4 mm. 

 broad, tapering gradually at apex, the margins nearly entire; 



♦Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



tEnum. PI. Jap. 2:244. 1879. 



tFollowing Professor Underwood's plan the letters E, G, N, Y, stand 

 respectively for the Eaton, Gray, National and New York Botanical Garden 

 herbaria. 



