A REVISION OF TECTARIA WITH SPECIAL REGARD 
TO THE PHILIPPINE SPECIES. 
By Edwin Bingham Copeland. 
( From the Bureau of Education, Manila, P. I.) 
TECTARIA Cavanilles. 
A genus of Aspidieae, derived from Dryopteris (§) Eudryopteris, char- 
acterized by the comparatively undissected fronds, and corresponding 
venation of reticulate veins which do not anastomose regularly in pairs, 
fronds more or less deltoid in form, and the fertile and sterile not exceed- 
ingly different. 
It has become possible, with the accumulation in Manila of a large 
amount of material, large not only in the number of collections to be 
cited, but also in the presence of many specimens of single collections, 
to present this confused genus in a way that was not at all possible at the 
time of publication of my 1 Tolypodiacese of the Philippines. It has 
also become possible to substitute for the artificial grouping of species 
according to the indusium a classification which for the most part may 
be advanced with some confidence in its naturalness. In many parts this 
arrangement is that adopted by Diels in Engler and Pr anti’s “Die 
1ST atiirlichen Pflanzenf amilien,’’ 
As would be anticipated, the chief difficulty and uncertainty in the 
delimitation of groups of species is among the most primitive, just as in 
a family it is the most primitive genera which are most difficult to char- 
acterize, or even to recognize with certainty. I have already established 
the place of Dryopteris (§) Lastraea as among our most primitive ferns, 
and as the parental type of Aspidiece. In this group, Dryopteris dis- 
secta (Bory) 0. K. represents, most nearly of known species, the probable 
origin of Tectaria. At a future date I shall show that some “ Atltyria ” 
are so near to D. dissecta that their generic assignment is a matter of 
judgment. We have in the Philippines a number of species of Tectaria 
which, while in reality and by easy definition members of the genus 
Tectaria , are more like this parental type than they are like any of the 
1 Publications of the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila (1904), 
No. 28. 
409 
