Vol. 35
No. l
April-June, 1945
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mrr ratt A QUARTERLY DEVOTED TO PER.NS
AMERICA N FERN SOCIETY EDITORS
WILLIAM R. MAXON R . C. BENEDICT
C. V. MORTON
IRA L WIGGINS
CONTENTS Elizabeth Billings and Her Fern Garden ELSIE
. KlT 7R EDGE
Observed Characteristics of Botrychium multifidum ... . . . .W. L. Drx .. . . .. var. oneidense. .. .. . . H t-BEHT H . Baow_ chizaea pu ilia from Ontario em Collecting in outhern Costa Rica K tJTCH .ALEX AN"DER F. ew pe ies of I oete from Colombia C. V . Moaros Camp loneurum ph llitidis in outbe1n Florida ALEX D. HA,VKES bundan e of ., eJagineJla in Oklahoma ; horter i otes: ! ' he Earliest Collection of Onocleop is; Pteri multifida topteris fragilis; Two in Texa : The lndument of of Commercial Importanc.e; Chilean Pteridophyt Further ug e tion for the tilization of Bracken tn reat Britain; 1 ...e \v tation for Equl etum laevigatum ·······-·· .............~ ...... ........ . .. f . proliferum ·-··· ... . . .. .. ....... ......... _................- .................... Recent Fern Literature . ... ..... .... ... ·-· ···· ········ American F et n ociety .... _ ....
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Sf. AND McGOVERN AVE., LANCASI*ER, BROOKLYN. NE
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mat r at the pmrt omee at eond-cl Acceptanee for m•lllq at reb 3 1 79. of for ln Bedloa 1101, A« of OCtober. rovld ~ a. 1118.
JUl 1 L\
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AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL
like stems, covered with brown scales, rose obliqt1ely out of the moss. Some vlere eig·ht feet long', and supported themselves on the bifid leaves of ca.rlttdov1·ca and other vegetation. Other ferns abundant near the su1nmit were Polypodium [1"axinifoli~.tm a11d Cyatltea div ergettts, a treefern with a caudex 18 feet high a11d drooping fronds 10 feet long. Althoug"h my original inte11tio11 hacl been to spe11d 011l~y fiv·e or six months an1id these forests, I sta.y ed in my cabin at Rivas for a. year a11d a half, and later 'vorked for te11 1nonths in two other portions of the basin of El General. But my collections do not contain a complete representation of the ferns, 11or of a11y other section of the flora. Ma11y years of steady collecti11g wot1ld be 11ecessary to complete our knowledge of the pla11ts of this rich and varied region. When :fit1ally opened to traffic, the InterAmerican Highwa)r will enable botanists to collect with ease and comfort i11 this a11d other parts of tropical America hitherto difficult ·o f access. Rich rewards in 11ew species a'vait those vlho first take advantag·e of the t111ique opportunities for collectiilg the highway will afford; but to be n1ost effecti,,.e the ,vork shot1ld be done JJromptly, for despite a. good deal of co11servation talk, the original vegetation along tl1e route of the road will doubtless rapidly vanish. SAN IsiDRo DEL GENERAL, CosTA
RicA
A Ne-w Species of Isoetes froiD Colombia• C. V.
MoRTON
The genus I soetes is represe11ted in South A1nerica by about 22 species, almost all of which are rare and known from only one or two localities. The five species thus far known from the northern Andes are: I. Karsten.i i A. Br. 1
Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
A NEw IsoETES
FROM CoLOMBIA
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(Venezuela), I. tr·r£q1tetra ( Ec11ador), I. ec ua.dort~e1h-;is Asplund (Ectlador), I. pacifica Svenso11 (Ecuador), a11d I. Lecltleri Mett. (Venezt1ela and Colombia to Bolivia). These all belong to the sectio11 Tuberculatae Pfeiffer. A species belong·ing· to the small section Retict1latae Pfeiffer has rece11tly been collected in Colombia by lVIr. l(illip a11d Mr. Lehman11. It Ina'r be described as follo,vs: ._ lsoetes Killipii Morto11, sp. 110\T. . ~la.11ta terrestris; cor111t1s bilobatus ( ~ ); folia numeroSISSin1a, 7-9 em. longa, ca. 1 n1m. diam., stlbrigida, atteilllata, stomatibus instrtlcta, basi dilatata membranacea 12 1nm. longa et 8 mn1. lata; lig·t1la a11guste triangtilaris, ca. 1:5 mm. longa, a pice subulata; velum incompletum, a_d lineain 1nedia1n ca. ! spora11gii longitudine; sporangia 5-6 Inm. longa, ca. 3 1111n. diain.; 1nacrosporae maxima,e, al?ae, 1 mn1. dia.1n., carinis promi11.en tibtlS, areolis perspictle retictllatis; microsporae pallidae, bilaterales, ca. 50 JJ longae et 30 1-l latae, laeves. T}rpe in the U. S. National Herbariun1, No. 1,856,468, collected 011 the '';estern slopes of the Paramo de Purace, Central Cordillera, Valley of Rio Cocuy, Department of El Cauca, Colombia, on a steep wet bank at 3,200 to 3,400 meters elevation, lVla}T 26, 1944, b)T E. P. J{illi}) a11d F. C. Lehmann (No. 38536) . I11 Illost characters I soetes Killipii is e\Tidentl~v relatecl
to the geographically remote Isoetes fo veolata A. A. Eaton of New Hampshire, but may be distinguished at once b}r its much larg·er n1acrospores ( abollt twice as large), which are much more sharply reticulate. The 011 l~y· Soutl1 A111erican species of this sectio11 is I. Ma1·t.fi A. Br., of southern Brazil, \vhich has similar but much smaller macros})Ores and 1nuch larger lea,res (60 to 75 em. long). In Weber's treat1nent of the South American species I. Killipii will go into the section Amphibiae and will key to I. Mart1~i. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.