Sticherus furcatus (L.) Ching

Dicranopteris palmata (Schaffn.) Underw. Bull. Torrey
Club 34: 259. 1907.
Mertensia palmata Schaffn.; F^e, M€m. Foug. 9: 40 (32), nomen nudum. 1857. Gteichenia palmata Moore, Index Fil. 380, nomen nudum. 1862.
An erect freely branching plant of medium size; rhizome widely creeping, branched, 4 mm. or more in diameter, dark-brown, sparingly tuberculate, clothed with copious decidu62 ous linear-lanceolate to lanceolate-attenuate spinescent-ciliate castaneous scales; primary leaf-axis continuous, 60 cm. or more long, chaffy below, above glabrate, greenish to olivaceous, opaque, with 2 or 3 pairs of primary branches, these divergent at right angles ; primary branches usually 2-4 times pseudodichotomous (or infrequently a secondary leaf -axis developed), the primary internodes 4.5-8 cm. long, stipulate on the upper side at the lower node, otherwise naked; secondary internodes 3.5-4 cm. long, diverging at an angle of 60 degrees, with 1 or 2 reduced segments at the lower node, otherwise naked ; tertiary internodes 4-6 cm. long, diverging at an angle of 30^0 degrees, fully pectinate throughout like the pinnae; pinnae 20-25 cm. or more long, 3-5.5 cm. broad, tapering gradually, cut to the rachis ; rachises sparingly clothed beneath with deciduous laxly long-ciliate mostly ferruginous scales, the scales of the internodes smaller, darker, with pale borders, and appressed; segments herbaceous, fragile, very, close, linear, subacute, 1.5-2.8 cm. long, 2.5-4 mm. broad, bright-green, the margins entire and scarcely revolute; costae, veins, and leaf -tissue lightly pubescent with whitish 3or 4-parted ( stellate ) hairs ; veins 20-28
pairs, once-forked near the base; sori few, 3-5-sporangiate, nearly medial, borne on the anterior branch.
Type locality : Moist woods, Orizaba, State of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
Distribution : Mountains of the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Known also from eastern Cuba (rare) and the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, altitude 1000-1650 meters.

Dicranopteris furcata (I^) Underw. Bull. Torrey
Club 34: 257. 1907.
Ptei-is dichotoma Iv. Sp. PI. 1076. 1753. "^ot Dicranopteris dichotoma Bernh. 1806. Acrostichtifn furcatum Iv. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 1321. 1759. Mertensia furcata Willd. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. II. 25: 166. 1804. Gteichenia furcata Sprang. Syst. Nat. 4: 25. 1827. Mertensia grandis F6e, M^m. Foug. 11 : 120. 1866.
Rhizome undescribed ; primary leaf-axis erect, stout, 5-6 mm. in diameter, covered at first with numerous narrowly lanceolate fimbriate mostly yellowish scales, glabrescent, continuous, bearing 2 or 3 pairs of ample primary branches ; primary branches onceor twice-pseudodichotomous, the primary internode about 3 cm. long, nearly naked, bearing only 2 or 3 small segments at the upper side of the node, deciduously yellowish paleaceous; secondary internodes up to 6 cm. long, fully pectinate upon both sides, up to 5 cm. broad, tapering somewhat toward the lower node ; pinnae mostly divergent at an angle of about 60 degrees, fully pectinate, 15-25 cm. long, 4.5-8 cm. broad, lanceolate, attenuate, tapering slightly at the base, the rachis stout, brownish-stramineous, paleaceous, the scales like those of the primary leaf-axis ; segments rigidly herbaceous, fragile, contiguous, linear, 2-4 cm. long, 3 mm. broad, the margins entire and closely revolute, the costa slightly paleaceous at the base, elsewhere lanose with deeply cleft long-ciliate yellowish scales ; veins slightly elevated, 40-50 pairs, mostly once-forked, glabrous except for an occasional deeply ciliate minute scale; leaf-tissue below whitish-granulose, the particles unequally elongate ; sori mostly 3-sporangiate, inframedial, borne on the anterior branch.
Type locality : Morne de la Calehasse, Martinique. , ., ,
Distribution : Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Kitts ; upon the upper slopes of volcanoes at