FERN GENERA NEW TO THE PHILIPPINES. 
By Edwin Bingham Copeland. 
( From the Bureau of Education, Manila, P. I.) 
BALANTIUM Ivaulf. 
The fern described as Diclcsonia Gopelandi Christ, Philip. Journ. Sci. 2 (1907) 
Bot. 183, is most nearly related, as Christ stated, to D. straminea Labill. and 
D. coniifolia Sw. Both of these species are Balantium, as that genus is construed 
by Diels and Christensen; and I have the authority of Dr. Christ for calling this 
one Balantium Copelandi Christ. 
The Australian plant known as Davallia dubia R. Br., doubtfully placed by 
Christensen in the section Leucostegia, is also a Balantium, and should be called 
Balantium dubium (R. Br.) Copel. It was placed in this genus by Presl, Tent. 
Pterid. 134, PI. 5, Fig. //., as B. brownianum. It shares with B. Gopelandi as 
peculiar a characteristic as the mottled rachises. 
The position of the genus is worthy of a word. The annulus of B. dubium 
is often unmistakably uninterrupted; in some cases it is apparently interrupted 
by the pedicel. The completeness of the annulus does not seem to me to be a 
fixed character here. But even if it is, there are other Polypodiaceae with oblique 
annulus; Plagiogyria, for instance. The other character on which Diels excludes 
Balantium from the Polypodiaceae is the elevated and tracheid-bearing receptacle ; 
but he uses this structure as a genus character of Microlepia. The sori of my 
specimens agree with Hooker’s figure, Sp. Fil. 1 : plate 2 4, G, rather than with 
Presl’s, cited above. In or near Dennstaedtia, we have already D. scandens (Bl.) 
Moore, whose indusium is sometimes not more highly developed than that of 
B. dubium, and sometimes entirely wanting. 
In spite of the stump-like stem, the affinity of Balantium to Dennstaedtia 
(including Microlepia) is. very evident and very close. Its affinity to Diclcsonia 
is likewise not in question. If we sometime understand thoroughly that the 
Gyatheaceae constitute a homogenetic group which includes Diclcsonia and Balan- 
tium, then the intimate relationship of Balantium and Dennstaedtia need not 
prevent the placing of Balantium in that family; for if the doctrine of descent 
were proven in every detail, and the gaps between the orders of higher plants 
made narrower than those between recognizable varieties or subspecies, no reason- 
able adherent of the doctrine would expect us to cease to recognize the most of 
the present orders, genera, and species. 1 However, at present, the mutual affinities 
of the Gyatheaceae not being clear, it seems reasonable, with Fee, 2 to place the 
1 1 remember being taught that by a “species” was meant any group of 
organisms not connected by an essentially complete series of known living or 
extinct forms with another such group. Such a conception makes it a mere token 
of contemporary ignorance ! 
2 Polypodiaceae, 38, 334. 
74379 3 
301 
