species. It belongs in the same section of Asplenium as A. viride 

 and A. dentation. The obcordate pinnae are rendered so by the 

 development of an auricle on the upper side of the base, which 

 often grows to the same size as the original pinna. The sinus 

 between them makes the entire pinnae beautifully heart-shaped, 

 with the apex of the heart at the stalk or connection with the 

 rachis. The alliance is with A. viride on account of the greenish 

 rachis. 



Collected Feb. 10 at New Haven Gap, Jamaica, W. I., altitude 

 5600 feet, where it was growing on the moist soil at the base of an 

 overhanging rock. Rare (No. 11S.) Mr. Clute is to be con- 

 gratulated on the discovery of this tiny species, inasmuch as it 

 was on ground that has been frequently traversed by preceding 

 botanists. It shows that there is still new material in Jamaica 

 for the collector with sharp eyes, and who possesses a fair know- 

 ledge of what has already been jx>und there. 



Polvstichum ten i e. Caudex short erect, covered with light- 

 brown acute scales 5mm. long. Fronds iS-24cm. long, stipites 

 caespitose, 3-1 icm. long, slender, light-green, clothed throughout 

 with light- brown, acuminate, contorted, generally reJiexed, scales; 

 rachis slender, furfuraceous, pale, slightly liexuose, and margined 

 in the upper part; lamina 14-24^. long, 4-6cm. wide, very acu- 

 minate, often widest at base but sometimes about the same width 

 from center down, simply pinnate for two-thirds or three-fourths 

 of the upper part, below that bipinnatifid to bipinnate, firm, 

 membranaceous, pinna' numerous, rhomboid-ovate with distinct 

 scalks, closely set, lower base obliquely cut away, upper truncate 

 parallel with the rachis, auricled, serrate with shallow spinulose 

 teeth, lower pinnae with basal segments generally fully separated 

 and sometimes one or two other pairs; segments roundish ovate, 

 spinulose only at point. Sori small, round, naked, rather nearer 

 the edge than midrib, always on the anterior branch of the veins, 

 in two lines; in the auricle also two lines; the veins free, branched 

 1-4 times. 



The absence of an involucre would, according to former 

 methods of classification, place this fern under Phegopteris as a 

 mere section of Polypodiutn, but the time has gone by for a class- 

 ification of that kind. These strongly polystichoid species must 

 be placed in Polyst ichum whether they have an involucre or not. 

 The alliance of this species is with the aculeatum section of 

 Polystichum, but its characters are sufficiently distinct to render 



