SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL,
DANIEL C. EATON COLLECTION.

VOL. XIII, pp. 199-200

DECEMBER 21, 1900

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

POLYPODIUM HESPERIUM, A NEW FERN FROM
WESTERN NORTH AMERICA.*

BY WILLIAM R. MAXON.

The prospect before one attempting to bring anything like
order ootf of the substantial aggregate known as Polypodium
eulgare is far from encouraging. Much uncertainty exists even
as to the typical form of the species, and it is certainly to be
doubted whether the common form of the eastern United States
truly represents the species long ago characterized upon Euro-
pean material as eulgare. At one time Hooker regarded our
castern representative of varietal rank and briefly characterized
it as var. Americanum;† but he seems to have disregarded it in
his later work. Much confusion has arisen also as to the iden-
tity of his var. occidentale† founded upon specimens collected
at the mouth of the Columbia and at Sitka. So far as the de-
scription goes it applies well to the plant, later described by
Kellogg as P. fulcatum† and again by Eaton as P. glycyr-
rhiza,§ but it may with equal propriety be referred to another
form of the Pacific coast especially abundant in Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands which is rather coriaceous in texture and in

*Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
†Flora Bor. Am. 2: 258. 1840.
‡Proc. Acad. Sci. I. 1: 20. 1854.
§Am. Journ. Sci. II. 22: 138. 1856.
||-BIOL. SOC. WASH. VOL. XIII. 1900. (199)

Yale University Herbarium

YU.020561

Yale University Herbarium

YU.020560

FILICES BOREALI-AMERICANA.

Polypodium vulgare L.

Irrachuca Mt. Arizona
Prof. & Mrs. Lemm. 1882.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
cm

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