THE PHILIPPINE SPECIES OF DRYOPTERIS. 
By H. Christ. 
(Basel, Switzerland.) 
Some time ago Mr. Elmer D. Merrill , Botanist of the Bureau of 
Science, Manila, sent me all the Philippine material of the genus 
Dryopteris from the herbarium of that institution, in order to give me an 
opportunity to prepare a classified list of the species found in the 
Archipelago. The collection contains many of Cuming’s plants, and a 
large number of specimens collected by the American botanists since 
the occupation of the Philippines by the United States. In addition 
to the above material I have also received from Dr. E. B . . Copeland 
a notable collection, and Mr. Loiter has had the kindness to furnish 
me with an additional and very interesting collection, supplementary 
to the one he sent me in 1897 and which was the basis of my work 
“Filices Insularum Philippinarurn.” 1 Since the publication of the above 
paper some important works of Dr. Copeland have notably advanced 
our knowledge of the ferns of the Philippines. In his Polypodiacece 
of the Philippine Islands, 2 Dr. Copeland admits 60 species of N ephrodium, 
compiling the descriptions of all the species credited to the Philippines, 
even of those species of which he had not seen- specimens. In my present 
paper I have not attempted to account for all the species of the genus 
that have been credited to the Archipelago by various authors, but 
have considered only those of which specimens are before me. In a 
group so difficult as Dryopteris and so subject to diverse interpretation, 
it appears to me that the latter treatment is the surest, even if com- 
pleteness is sacrificed. 
I have limited Dryopteris in the sense of Christensen’s Index Filicum ; 
that is, excluding Pleocnemia and Sagenia and treating only Lastrea 
(including Phegopteris) and N ephrodium proper (including Goniopteris, 
Mesochlaena and Menisciwn). As the Philippines are particularly 
rich in species and forms of Dryopteris , the task of treating all the 
species was sufficiently arduous. In regard to nomenclature I have 
followed Christensen’s Index Filicum and accepted the generic name 
1 Bull. Herb. Boiss. 6 (1898) 127-154; 189-210. 
2 Govt. Lab. Publ. 28 (1906) 18-32. 
189 
