Brownlie, G.

Pacific Science

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Studies on Pacific Ferns, Part IIHumata and CtenopterisG. BROWNLIE!THE PRESENT PAPER continues the discussionof problems discovered in nomenclature anddistribution of some groups of South Pacificferns . The first section covers several speciesof the genus Humata, the second, species ofCteno pteri s, and the third clarifies an apparenterror as to the origin of a particular collectionof ferns from Aneiryum Island in the NewHebrides.A cknowledgm ents: I wish to thank Mr. F.Ballard of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gar-dens, Kew, for his assistance with this work,and I acknowledge my indebtedness to the Coun-cil of the Uni versity of Canterbury for grantingthe leave during which it was undertaken.A. SPECIES OF THE GENUS HumataAlthough Christensen 's monograph on thePteridophyra of Samoa did much to clear up theuncertainty as to the specific limits in the genusHumat«, it appeared that some aspects requiredfurther investigation. The results of this in-vestigation are given in this section, and thepresent author feels that the position is nowclarified for Fiji, Samoa, and Aneiryum. Insuf-ficient material was available to be certain of thetrue situ ation in N ew Caledoni a, and it appearsnecessary to await further collections from thatisland before giving a definite verdict.Huma ;a sessilifolia ( Bl.) Mett.Davallia aemula Mete Kuhn Linn . 36: 144,1869.H umata aemula (Men.) Carr. In Seem. Fl.Vic 335, 1873.H . aemula was based on a collection by Mac-Gillivray from Aneityum in the New Hebridesand was distinguished by the possession oflonger sripes than is usual in H . sessilif olia. VeryI Boran y Department, Universit y of Canterbury,Christchurch, N ew Zealand. Manuscript received May12, 1959.little material from the New Hebrides has beenseen, but an examination of Fijian specimensshows the length of stipe to be extremely vari-able, even on the same plant. This variabilityis not apparent in Malaysia but occurs also inNew Guinea. In the Fijian examples frondswere noted with sripes varying in length fromless than 1 cm. to 4 cm., sometimes on the samespecimen. In view of this grading of a characterpreviously thought to be distinctive, it appearsnecessary to reduce H. aemula to a synonym ofH. sessilifolia.SPECIMENS EXAMINED : New He brides-MacGillivray 64 (Kew ), Milne 456 (Kew) .Fiji-Milne 215 (Kew ) , 251 (Kew ), unnum-bered (BM ) , Horne 805 (Kew ) ; im Thurn 131(Kew ) , Thurston unnumbered (Kew ), Gibbs866 ( BM) , Smith 742 (Kew, BM), 5406(Kew) .Hum ata serrata Brack.Humata serrata Brack. Expl. Exped . 16: 230,1854; C. Chr . B. P. Bishop Mus. Bull. 177:38, 1943 ( in part ) .Davallia botrychioides Brack. var. multifidaCarr . Christ Engler Bot. lb. 23: 339,1897.Much of the confusi on concerning this specieshas been cleared up by Christensen , but he stillgives the distribution as Samoa, Fiji, and NewCaledonia. All Fijian specimens, however, havethe lamina of the fertile frond more reducedthan is the case with the Samoan material, andthey invariably lack the horn projecting beyondthe sorus. In general, specimens from NewCaledonia identified as H . serrata are smaller insize than the Samoan ones and approach closerto the local H . pusilla in the extreme serrationsof the steri le frond. In view of this it appearspreferable to restrict the name H . serrata toSamoan material.SPECIMENS EXAMINED : All from Samoa-U. S. Explor. Exped. 6 (Kew), Powell 136400Pacific Ferns, II--BROWNLIE(Kew ) , Whitmee 36 (Kew, BM ) , 43 (Kew ) ,Christoph erson 129 and 177 (BM), McKee2969 ( BM) .Humata botrychioides Brack.H umata botrychioides Brack. Explor. Exped.16: 231,1854.As pointed out above, this differs from H .serrata in the extreme reduction of the laminaof the fertil e frond, giving it a more delicate ap-pearance, and in the consistent absence of thehorn projecting beyond the sorus. Brackenridge'scollection was made in Fiji and the specimensseen from those islands match his plate perfectly.SPECIMENS EXAMINED: All from Fiji-Milne330 in part (Kew ) , Thurston unnumbered(Kew ) , Graeffe 101 ( BM ), Smith 453 (BM) .Humata multifida ( Bak.) Carr . ex Brownlie.Humata multifida Carr . In Seem. Fl. Vito335,1873 ( nomen ) .Davallia m ultifida Bak. Syn. Fil. 467, 1874.Hamata botrychioides Brack. var. multifidaCarr . C. Chr. Ind . Fil. 354, 1906.Baker originally distinguished th is from H .botrychioides by the larger, more compoundfrond, and smaller sari with a horn pro jectingbeyond them. These distinctions, especially thepossession of a definite projecting horn , holdgood for material from Aneityurn. The fertil efronds are similar in appearance to those ofH . botrychioid es with extremely reduced lamina,but the proj ecting horn is very obvious, beingeven longer than that seen in H. serrata. How-ever, no specimens from islands other thanAneityum have th is type of frond and it appe arsthat the species is restricted to that island orpossibly to the N ew Hebrides group .SPECIMENS EXAMINED: All from Aneiryurn-MacGillivray 43 (Kew, BM ) , Milne 294and 367 (Kew ), Milne ex herb. J. Smith un-numb ered ( BM), Macleay unnumbered ( Kew) .B. SPECIES OF THE GENUS CtenopterisThe genus Cteno pteris has not previouslybeen closely examined for the South Pacific area,apart from Chr istensen's clarification of namesfor the Samoan species. It was qu ickly apparentthat several of the species from different islands,401described under different names, are in factidentical. The following section covers the mainaspects cleared up in this genus, but furth er workis required on material from the Society Islands.Ctenopteris crassijrons (Bak.) Brownli e, comb.nov.Polypodium crassifrons Bak. Syn. Fil. 325,1867.Polyp odium stenopt eron Bak. J. Bot. 24 : 183,1886.Polypodium pttrpurascens N ad. Capel. B. P.Bishop Mus. Bull. 59: 100, 1929 (ex clud-ing Society Is.).Copeland wrongly ident ified Baker's P; sten-opteron from Fiji with P. purpurascens. In hismonograph on the ferns of the Society Islands,however, he states that the latt er species has thesurface densely beset with minute black hairs,whereas Baker's type at Kew has both sur-faces of the frond thickly covered with sizeablereddish-brown hairs. This is also the case in thetype specimen of P. crassifrons, which in addi -tion has the soraI characters identical with thoseof P. stenop teron. Since P. crassifrons is theearliest descrip tion, the name for both theFijian and the N ew Caledonian planes should beCten opteris crassijrons.SPECIMENS EXAMINED: All at Kew; Fiji-Thurston unnumbered ( Baker's type ) , Parkes20820, Smith 4986 and 5178, im Thurn F. 26;N ew Caledonia-Deplanche no. 2 ( Baker'stype ) , Herb. Macleay unnumbered.Ctenopteris seemanni (J . Sm.) Brownlie, comb.nov.Polypodium contiguum Brack. Explor . Exped.16: 6, pI. 2, 1854 ( not of others ) .Cryptosorus seemanni ] . Sm. Bonplandia 9 :262,1 861.Polypodium lepidum Brause N otizbl. Bot.Garr. Berl.-Dahlem 8: 139, 1922; C. Chr.B. P. Bishop Mus. Bull. 177 : 113, 1943.Polypodium seemanni (J. Sm.) Capel. B. P.Bishop Mus. Bull. 93: 69, 1932.Chr istensen has already pointed Out that theFijian P. seemanni and the Samoan P. lepidummay not be distinct from one another. In fact,the length ened fertil e segments which are char-402acten snc of P. lepidum are shown also insome of the Fijian specimens examined, notablyHorne 728 and Seemann 821. Although thevariability is greater in material from Fiji , I haveno doubt that there is only one good speciesrepres ented. The range of the species is extendedto Aneityum by two collections from that island ,pre viously identified as Polypodium blecbnoides,which have the characteristic elongated fertilesegments of the Samoan form.SPECIMENS EXAMINED : All at Kew; Fiji-Brackenridge 7, Seemann 821, Horne 728, Smith1898 and 6436; Samoa-Whitmee 128, Powellunnumbered ; Aneityum-Milne 317, Kajewski886 .Ctenopteris hornei ( Bak.) Brownlie, comb.nov.Polypodium hornei Bak. J. Bot. 17: 298,1879.This species appears to be closely related tothe preceding one, and in fact may be only aform of it, but as I have seen no mater ial otherthan Baker 's type specimen, it is better retainedin the meantime as distinct . It differs in therounder sari, distinctly pubescent stip e, and themore plentiful pubescence on the rachis. Thesripe is also marked ly shorter.SPECIMEN EXAMINED: Fiji-Horne unnum-bered (Kew, Baker 's type ).C. ON A COLLECTION FROMANEITYUM ISLANDDuring the course of the above investiga tionsthe present author had reason to refer to Kuhn'stwo papers "Reliquiae Mettenianae" in whichseveral type specimens from Aneityum were as-cribed to Cuming during the years 1858-60.It was realised that these could not possibly havebeen collected by Cuming at the time indicatedinasmuch as he had been in the Pacific in the1830's. Specimens with the same collection num-bers as given by Kuhn were found at Kew andat the British Museum (N atural History ), thoseat Kew having no collector's name but those atthe British Museum having MacGillivray's namePACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XIV, October 1%0added later . Through the kindness of the lateMr. A. H. G. Alston, photographs of the speci-mens of Humata aemula from the herbaria ofMettenius and Kuhn were compared with thesheets located in England . The example fromMetren ius' herba rium had a printed label withthe number (64) and "Aneitum, N ew Hebrides ,Feb. 1860" with "Mountain woods on trees"added in writing in the same manner as on theEnglish sheets. Other labels had been added byMettenius. From the Kuhn herba rium the onesheet had written labels only, so it app ears thatthose specimens may have been separated froman original sheet. Although the numbers werethe same in every case, the dates varied on thefour sheets from December, 1858, to February,1860, making it appear that the numbers weregiven by the collector to everything that ap-peared to be the same species. Comparison ofother sheets at Kew and the British Museumshowed the same discrepancy in dates.An account of MacGillivray by Maiden (1909)showed that he was resident in Sydney at thetime and was known to make trips to the Pacificislands, so it appeared possible that he was re-sponsible for the collections. In fact, in the"Synopsis Filicurn " Baker (1874 ) ascribed thespecim ens to MacGilli vray without indicatingthe reason for his disagreement with Kuhn.Th e final soluti on came with a comparison ofthe writing on the origin al labels ( the words"Mountain woods on trees" appearing on mostof them ) with corresp ondence from MacGil-livray in the H ooker let ters at Kew. Th is provedconclusively that they were his collections andthat Kuhn's ascribing them to Cuming in hisdescriptive papers was an error.REFERENCESHOOKER, W . ] ., and J. G. BAKER. 1874. Synops.Filicum, 2nd ed. London.KUHN, M. 1868. Reliquiae Mertenianae. Lin-naea 35 : 385 .--- 1869. Reliquiae Mettenianae. Linnaea36 : 40.MAIDEN, ]. H. 1909. Records of QueenslandBotanists. Ausr. Ass. Adv. Sci. Pap.

Studies on Pacific Ferns, Part II: Humata and Ctenopteris

Brownlie, G

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Studies on Pacific Ferns, Part II: Humata and Ctenopteris

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