FERNS OF SOUTHERN CHINA. 
By Edwin Bingham Copeland. 
( From the Bureau of Education, Manila, P. I.) 
During the past year I have received three collections of Chinese ferns 
sent for determination. The first was from Rev. H. A. Kemp, an 
American missionary at Choochowfu, near Swatow. These ferns were 
collected at Mr. Kemp’s request in Kwangtung Province, about 180 
miles northeast of Hongkong. The second collection was sent by Dr. 
Charles G. Matthew of the British Navy. Dr. Matthew collected them 
in the mountainous interior of Kwangtung and Fokien Provinces. The 
third was from Mr. S. T. Dunn, Director of the Hongkong Botanic 
Garden. Mr. Dunn collected these ferns in 1905 in Fokien Province. 
These gentlemen have my cordial thanks for honoring me with the op- 
portunity to determine their collections. 
The fern flora of this part of China has been described from various 
earlier collections sufficiently so that it is no longer worth while to 
enumerate all the ferns found now. I therefore mention here only the 
species to which some especial interest attaches. 
Dryopteris sparsa (Ham.) 0. K. 
There are a number of specimens of this common and variable fern, and they 
vary from typical to plants (Dunn 3884) I can not distinguish from the Japanese 
D. Sahaei (Franch. et Sav.) C. Chr., which Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. (1899) 822, 
has already reported from China, referring it however to D. Filix-mas. There 
are also depauperate specimens, the most extreme of which, Dunn 3836, from Tan 
Ka Cha, alt. 1,200 m, I can not distinguish by description from D. Cavalerii 
(Christ) C. Chr. 
Dryopteris erythrosora (Eaton) O. Iv. 
Dunn 3832 and 3874 are coriaceous plants with very scaly stipe and racliis 
suggesting the form mentioned by Christ from the collection of Cavaler, Ac. 
Geog. Bot. (1904) 117, but not aristate. They might be referred to D. lacera 
except that the frond is soriferous throughout. And they are not very distinct 
from forms of the protean D. Filix-mas ( Aspidium Championi Benth., Dunn 3881). 
Dryopteris Eaton i (Baker) O. K.? 
Matthew 4 from Tai Mo Shan, alt. 730 m, agrees with the description, except 
that it is glabrous beneath and more dissected. It has not been reported before 
from the mainland. 
Dryopteris decipiens (Hook.) O. K. 
Mattheio 56, Samsa. Fokien: Kemp. 
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