The Polypodiaceae of the Philippine Islands : new species of edible Philippine fungi / by Edwin Bingham Copeland.

  • Copeland, Edwin Bingham, 1873-1964.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Polypodiaceae of the Philippine Islands : new species of edible Philippine fungi / by Edwin Bingham Copeland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION. The Polypodiacm are distinguished from the other orders of true ferns by the character of the sporangium, which is usually stalked and provided with a longitudinal annulus interrupted by the stalk, and opening by a stomium at right angles to the annulus. In the field, and without the use of the microscope, they can be distinguished as a rule from other ferns by the following charac- teristics : They are rarely tree ferns, as are Marattiacece and Cyatheacece. They are not filmy in texture, as are Hymenophyllacece. They are not dichotomously compound, like most of our Gleiche- niacece. They do not have climbing fronds, as do most of our Schizaeacece. In the Philippines, as elsewhere in the world, the Polypodiacece are several times more numerous than are all other ferns combined, and, therefore, a treatment of the order does not fall far short of being an entire fern flora. My attempt has been to collect and publish descriptions of all the ferns known to have been found in these Islands. It is likely that I have fallen considerably short of this goal, for in some groups the discrepancy between my number of species and the larger one given by Underwood 1 is far greater than can be explained by any difference in our interpretation of specific limits. A history of the work on the ferns of these Islands would be superfluous, since the subject has been well handled within the past two years by both Merrill2 and Underwood. While I was engaged on this work practically no ferns collected before the American occupation were available for study in Manila. 1 Underwood, L. M.: A Summary of Our Present Knowledge of the Ferns of the Philippines. Contr. Bot. Dept., Columbia Univ., No. 206, 1903. 2Merrill, E. D.: Botanical Work in the Philippines. Bull. (Philippine) Bureau of Agr. No. 4, 1903.