Publication Date:
2024-01-12
Description:
In the first paper of this series (Holttum, 1969) I gave a brief summary of taxonomic treatment of the family Thelypteridaceae in the present century, and stated that in my judgement no satisfactory subdivision of the family, as represented in the tropics of the Old World, had yet been achieved, the arrangements of Ching (1963) and Iwatsuki (1964) being in part inadequate because the authors were not sufficiently acquainted with the majority of species in the Malayan region and in the Pacific, which far outnumber those of mainland Asia.\nI have been attempting a complete survey of all species of Asia, Malesia, and the Pacific, and it has become evident to me that a study of a wider range of characters than those used in most taxonomic species-descriptions is necessary in order to distinguish individual species clearly, and in order to provide data on which the delimitation of natural species-groups can be based. Therefore an essential preliminary is a detailed study of the morphology of the type-species of genera already proposed, as these species control the application of generic names. Such a study should indicate the nature of the differences between the species which by accident have become the types of genera, and will also provide standards against which the distinctive character-combinations found in newly recognized species-groups may be judged. The most- important generic names for the Old World tropics are Thelypteris, Cyclosorus, and Ampelopteris; in connection with the last-named, its resemblance to tropical American species included in Goniopteris Pr. (as re-defined by Christensen) necessitates a detailed examination also of at least one species of that genus.
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf
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