V-A \ RETURN to ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY ITHACA, N. Y.Cornell University Library QK 523H78Ga 3 1924 001 31924001743719GARDEN FERNS.GARDEN FERNS; Oil, COLOURED EIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS, WITH THE NEEDFUL ANALYSES OF THE FRUCTIFICATION AND VENATION, OF A SELECTION OF dfoxrtit Jfenis abaptetr for (Mlibatiott IN THE G ARDEN, HOTHOUSE, AND CONSERVATORY. BY SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER, K.H., D.C.L. Oxon., F.E.A. and L.S~ CORRESPONDING MEMBER OP SCIENCES OP THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OP FRANCE, ETC., AND DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL GARDENS OF KEW. THE DRAWINGS BY WALTER FITCH, F.L.S. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1862.QK 53 3 W7?6 382147 PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, l.ITTLK QVEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.CONTENTS. Plate Acrostichum acuminatum, Willd................ 26 aldcorne, Sw...................... 9 areolatum, Linn.................. G1 calomelanos, Linn................ BO dichotomum, Linn................. 34 digitatum, Linn.................. 49 elegans, Vahl................... 34 „ (/3 dichotoma) .......... 34 lieterophyttum, Linn............. 46 Meyerianum, Hook................. 16 nicotiansefolium, Sw............. 26 plilebodes, Kze.................. 57 preestantissimum, Borg .......... 58 rivulare, W all................... 6 spicatum, Linn.................... 3 demaria, Pali..................... 9 trifoliatum, Linn................. 4 Yapurense, Mart.................. 57 Actinostachys digitata, Wall................... 49 Adiantum cardiochlana, Kze................ 12 lunulatum, Houtt................. 17 multifidum, Sw................... 39 patens, Kze...................... 12 polyphyllum, Willd............... 12 repens, Linn...................... 7 Allosorus multifidus, Ilerali.............. 39 Alsophila extensa, Hook, and Am............ 25 Perriniana, Spv.................. 43 Anemia abscissa, Schrad................. 36 collina, Kaulf................... 36 „ (var. ■radicans')........... 36 Mandioccana, Raddi .............. 36 radicans, JRaddi................. 36 Plate Aspidium anomopTiyllum, Zenk............. 13 caryotideum, Wall............... 13 cultratum., Pr................. 17 ohtusum, Willd.................. 43 squamatum, Willd................ 17 tnmcatulum, Sw.................. 17 Asplenium alternans, Wall................. 38 Dalhousice, Hook............... 38 procerum, Benih................. 53 serrulatum, Sw.................. 44 Blechnum Capense, Sold................... 53 VHerminieri, Mett............... 40 procerum, Labill................ 53 scan dens, Bory................. 15 volubile, Klfs.................. 15 Botrychium bracliystachys, Kze............. 29 cicutarium, Sw.................. 29 gracile, Pursh.................. 29 lannfjinosvm, Wall.............. 29 Virginianum, Sw................. 29 Virginicum, Willd............... 29 Zeylanicum, Sw.................. 28 Botryopteris Mexicana, Pr.................... 28 Botrypus Virginicus, Mich................ 29 Cephalomanes atrovirens, Pr.................. 37 Bory a mm, Bosch................ 37 Javanicum, Pr................... 37 Madagascuriense ?, Bosch....... 37 rhomboideum, Bosch.............. 37 Singaporiamm, Bosch............. 37 Ceropteris calomelanos, Link............... 50CONTENTS. Plate C. calomelanos, /3 aureo-flavu . . . 50 Cheilanthes Capensis, Eckl.................... 39 multifida, Sw..................... 39 spinulosa, Link................... 23 Craspedaria pertusa, Link..................... 19 piloselloides, Fee................ 18 veroniccpfolia, Lee............... 18 Cyathea afftnis, Sw....................... 25 externa, Sw....................... 25 medullaris, Sic................... 25 Mertensiana, Bong................. 25 sinnata, Hook, and ft rep....... 21 Cyclopliorus adnascens, Desv................... 19 vittarioides, Pr.................. 19 Cyrtomium caryotideum, Pr................... 13 falcatum, Eaws.................... 13 Davallia dealbata, A. Cunn................. 31 Novae-Zelandias, Col.............. 51 pedata, Srn........................ 7 subimbricata, B1................... 7 Dictymia attenuata, J. Sm.................. 30 Bictyopteris attenuata, Pr..................... 30 Didymochlsena dimidiata, Kze.................... 17 lunulata, Besv.................... 17 sinuosa, Desv..................... 17 squamata, Desv.................... 17 iruncalulu, J. Sin................ 17 Bidymoglossum piloselloides, Pr................. 46 Biplazinm pulcherrimmu, Radd................ 17 Boryopieris euc/dora, Klotz................... 22 palmata, J. Sm.................... 22 „ (var. lata).................. 22 „ (var. P anyustiloba) . . 22 Drymog'lossum piloselloides, Pr................. 46 Dry n aria diversifolia, J. Sm................ 5 loriformis, J. Sm................. 14 morbittosa,, J. Sm................. 1 pinnata, Fee....................... 5 propinquu, J. Sm.................. 35 Feea Boryi, Bosch....................... 2 ^ Plate F. polypodina, Bory.................. 60 spicata, Bosch.................... 00 Goniopldeb ium pectinatum, J. Sm................. 10 piloselloides, J. Sm.............. 18 verrucosnni, J. Sm................ 41 Grammitis myosuroides, Sw................... 44 serrulata, Sw..................... 44 Gymnogramme calomelanos, Kaulf................ 50 ckrysophylla, Ivanlf. P........... 50 trifoliata, Besv................... 4 Gymnopteris acuminata, Pr..................... 26 decurrens, Hook.................... 6 latifolia, Pr..................... 26 nicotiancefolia, Pr............... 26 spicata, Pr....................... 23 Hemionitis trifoliata, II. B. K............... 4 Helminthostachys crenata, Pr....................... 28 dulcis, Kaulf. ................... 28 integrifolia, Pr.................. 28 Zeylanica, Hook................... 28 Hiniiata pedata, J. Sm...................... 7 Hyalolepis ophioglossoides and revoluta, Kze. 3 Hymenolepis ophioglossoides, Kaulf............. 3 revoluta, Kze.................. 3 revoluta, B1................... 3 spicata, Pr.................... 3 ,, (var. brachystacliys)... 3 „ (var. macrostachys)... 3 Hymenostachys diversifrous, Boiy................. 2 elegans, Pr........................ 2 osmundioides, Pr................... 2 Hypoderris Brownii, J. Sin................... 24 Leptochilus decurrens, B1...................... 6 Lep/opteris hyiueuopliylloides, Pr............ 54 Lindssea attenuata, Wall................... 63 ensifolia, Sw..................... 62 Griffilkiana, Hook................ 62 lanceolata, Lab................... 62 longipinna, Wall.................. 62 membranacea, Kze.................. 62 pentaphylla, Hook................. 62CONTENTS. Ill Plate L. pteroides, Wall................... 62 sublobata, Kze................... 62 Lingua cervina, Plum.................... 26 cervina triphyila, Plum........... 4 Litobrochia canptocarpa, Pee................. 55 leptophylla, Pee................. 23 pedata, Pr....................... 22 podophylla, Pr................... 55 Lomaria Boryana, Willd................... 52 Capensis, Willd.................. 53 Chilensis, Klfs.................. 53 cinnamomea, Kaulf............... 5'2 Gilliesii, Hook.................. 53 grandis, Bojer................... 16 latifolia, Col................... 53 L’Herminieri, Borg............... 40 lineata, Willd................... 53 Magellanica, Besv................ 52 Meyeriana, Kze................... 16 procera, Spr..................... 53 robusta, Garni................... 52 Ryani, Kaulf..................... 52 secunda, Wall.................... 16 setigera, Gaud................... 52 spectabilis?, Liebm.............. 53 spicata, Willd.................... 3 striata, Willd................... 53 tenuifolia, Desv................. 16 Lomariobotrys Meyeriana, Fee .................. 16 Lomariopsis elongata ?, Fee.................. 57 erythrodes ?, F6e................ 57 plilebodes, Pee.................. 57 Frieuriuna, Pee.................. 57 Lonchitis Caffrorum, Sw.................... 39 pedata, Linn..................... 55 ramosa, Plum..................... 17 Lophidium elegans, Pr...................... 34 Lorinseria areolata, Cu..................... 61 Loxoma Cunninghami, Br. ................ 31 Marginaria pilosettoides, Pr................ 18 verrucosa, Hook.................. 41 Karwinskiana, Pr................. 48 Marsilea macropus, Hook................... 63 quadrifolia, var., Muell......... 63 Plato Monochlana sinuosa, Gaud ................... 17 Neurocallis prastantissima, Fee.............. 58 Neuromanes ubruptum, Bosch................... 8 immersum, Bosch................... 8 Vittaria, Bosch................... 8 Neurophyttum abrupturn, Pee.................... 8 Ilostmanninnum, K1................ 8 Vittaria, Pr..........’........ 8 Neuroplatyceros FEthiopicus, Pluk................. 9 Niphobolus adnascens, K/f................... 19 angustatus, Spr.................. 20 carnosus, B1.................... 19 caudatus, Kaulf.................. 19 Chamissoanus..................... 19 elongatus, B1.................... 19 macrocarpus, Kook, and Am... 20 pertusus, Spr.................... 19 sphcerocepTialns, Hook, and Grev. 20 varius, J. Sm.................... 19 vittarioides, Pr................. 19 Nipliopsis angustatus, J. Sm................ 20 Nothoclrena piloselloides, Kaulf............. 46 Odontomanes Hostmanniunum, Pr................. 8 Onoclea Boryana, Sw...................... 52 Capensis, Sw..................... 53 nodulosa, Mich................... 61 procera, Spr..................... 53 spicata, Sw....................... 3 Ophioderma pendulum, Pr..................... 53 Ophioglossum pendulum, L...................... 53 laciniatum, Humph................ 28 Orthogramme Gilliesii, Pr.................... 53 Osmunda alata, Hook...................... 45 Asphodeli radice, Plum........... 29 Capensis, Linn................... 53 cicutaria, Lam................... 29 cinnamomea, Linn................. 45 Claytoniana, var., Conr.......... 45 imbricata, Kze................... 45 lineata, Sw...................... 53 procera, Porst................... 53IV CONTENTS. 0. Virginiana, Linn............... Zeylanica, Linn................ Pacliypleuria pedata, Lee.................... Parablechnum procerum, Pr................... Phyllitis ramosa trifida, Sloane......... Phymatodes loriforme, Pr.................. Physematium obtusum, Hook.................. Perrinianum, Kze............... Piper nummidarium, Lam............... Platy.cerium /Ethiopicum, Hook.............. stemmaria, Desv................ Pleopeltis albo-squamatum, IV............. angustatus, Pr................. Commersoniana, Willd........... loriformis, Pr................. macrosora, Pr.................. vuda, Hook..................... Polypodium adnascens, Sw.................. affine, Porst.................. albo-squamatum, Bl............. anyust.atum, Sw................ attenuatum, Br................. Brownianum, Spr................ Brown'd, Mett.................. caniosum, Mett................. „ (var. elongatum) caudatmn, Mett................. crispum and calyciferum, Plum. dimorpTmm, Zoll................ diversifolium, Br............. . .. Gaudichaudii, Bory............. gladiatum, Wall................ glaucistipes, Wall............. Heracleum, Kze................. Karwinskianum, Mett............ leucosiictum, K1............... Ijoncliitides, Pet............. loriforme, Wall................ medullare, Porst............... morbillosum, Hort.............. myosuroides, Sw........... nigrum, Plum................... obtusum, Sw.................... pectinat.um, Linn.............. perlusum, Boxb................. piloselloides, Linn............ Plate P. plebejum, Sold.................... 48 propinquum, Wall.................. 35 quercifolium, Willd................ 5 Sehkuhrii, Raddi.................. 10 serrulatum, Mett.................. 44 spharocephalum, Wall.............. 20 verrucomm, Wall................... 19 verrucosum, Wall.................. 41 vittarioides, Wall................ 19 TPightiannm, Wall................. 14 Willdenowii, Bory................. 35 Pteris alata, Lam........................ 59 angulata, Pr...................... 62 angustata, Wall................... 62 collina, Raddi.................... 22 dimidiata, Bl..................... 59 ,, {var. /3 submquilatera) 59 dispar, Kze....................... 59 erecta, Lam....................... 62 fiabellata, Schk.................. 59 leptopkylla, Sw................... 23 osmundioides, Bory................ 52 palmata, Willd.................... 22 pedata, Sieb...................... 22 piloselloides, Linn............... 46 platyloma, Kze.................... 22 podophylla, Sw.................... 55 semipinnatn, Linn................. 59 spimdosa, liaddi.................. 23 varians, Raddi.................... 22 Pteropsis nummidaria, Desv.................. 46 piloselloides, Desv............... 46 Ptilophyllum Bancroftii, Bosch................. 56 Ripidium dichotomwm, Bernli................ 34 Salpichlcena volubilis, J. Sm.................. 15 scandens, Pr...................... 15 Schizsea cristata, Willd................... 34 dichotoma, Sw..................... 34 digitata, Sw...................... 49 elegans, Sw....................... 34 ,, (a latifolia)............... 34 marginata, Wall................... 49 rupestris, Br..................... 42 spicata, Sm........................ 3 Schizolomu Billardieri, Gaud................. 62 ensifolium, J. Sm................. 62 Slegania procera, Br....................... 53 Plate 29 28 7 53 4 14 43 43 46 9 9 47 20 19 14 20 14 19 25 47 20 30 30 30 19 19 19 27 35' 5 5 14 5 1 48 48 10 14 25 1 44 10 43 10 19 18CONTENTS. V Plate S. minor, Br........................ 53 Stenochlccna Meyeriana, Pr.................... 16 tenuifolia, Moore ?.............. 16 Tegularia adiantifolia, Reinw.............. 17 Todea hymenophylloides, Rich........... 54 pdlucida, Carm................... 54 Trichomanes accedens, Pr..................... 27 achillecefolium, J. Sm........... 11 alutum, Bory .................... 37 anceps, Hook..................... 11 usplenioides, Pr................. 37 atrovirens, Bosch................ 37 Bancroftii, Hook, and Grev. ... 56 Boryanum, Kze.................... 37 ccenopteroides, Harv............. 31 coriaceum, Kze................... 56 crispum, Linn.................... 27 cristatum, Klfs.................. 27 curvatum, J. Sm.................. 37 elegans, Rich................... 11 elegans, PI...................... 60 elegans, Rudge.................... 2 eriopltorum, Pr.................. 27 fastigiata, Seib................. 27 Jilamentosum, Wall............... 37 floribundum, H.K.B................ 8 Jloribundum (J3 Vittaria), Splitg. 8 fuscum?, B1...................... 37 Hcenkeanum, Pr............'.. .. 27 Ho&tmannianum, Bosch.............. 8 Javanicum, Bl.................... 37 laxum, K1........................ 27 Leprieurii, Kze.................. 11 Malingii, Hook................... 64 maximum, Pohl and Kze........... 27 Plate T. Merkmii, Pr...................... 27 oblortgifolium, Pr............... 37 oumundioides, Bory............... 60 pellucens, K1.................... 27 pomatum, Kaulf.................... 8 pilosum, Raddi................... 27 pinnatum, Iledic.................. 8 plumosum, Ktinze................. 27 ptumula, Pr...................... 27 rhomhoideum, J. Sm............... 37 rigid urn, K1.................... 11 rigidum, Wall.................... 37 Schoiuburgkianum, J. G. Sturm 8 Sellowianum, Pr.................. 27 setifferum, Wall................. 37 spicat.um, Iledw. JH............. 60 spic'usorum, Desv................ 60 villosulum, Wall................. 11 Vittaria, De (land................ 8 Zottingeri ?, Bosch.............. 37 Trismeria argentca, Fee..................... 4 aurea, Fee........................ 4 micropliylla?, Fee................ 4 Woodsia obtusa, Hook..................... 43 Perr'miana, Hook, and Grev. .. 43 polystichoides, Eat.............. 32 ,, (var. (i Veitchii). 32 VeitcMi, Hance................... 32 „ var. y sinuata.............. 32 Woodwardia angustifolia, Sm................. 61 areolata, Moore.................. 61 Floridana, Schk.................. 61 onoclcoides, Willd............... 61 Xiphopteris serrulata, Klfs.................. 44 myosuroides, Klfs................ 44/ ^fc.^37%101 e'£o crbj ISii ■ ®»i? o® * »©• a>«#^ mmft® r\ i\ A »- O < Pr <»« ^aislisgaa SSSMil" ®®J -o* >' Vfi/ ; Wi *»jHS'*>?*t>% i1** • *'j»i\.e*Bte« #Jp: |*/ / i +i*\y*i\?mPlate 1. POLYPODIUM (§ Detnaeia) Heeacleum, Kze. Hogweed-leaved Polypody. Polypodium (Drynaria) Heracleum; caudex stout, repent, densely clothed with very long, slender, silky, subulate, exceedingly acuminated, bright tawny scales; fronds three to four and more feet long, oblong-lyrate,'elongated, coriaceous, acuminate, the base sessile, broad, subcordiform, and subpellueid, and moderately sinuato-lobate; above this, in the contracted portion, be- coming regularly pinnatifid, widening upwards, where the segments are a foot or a foot and a half long, three to four inches broad, oblong acuminate, everywhere glabrous; midrib of the segments stout, primary lateral veins pinnated, secondary ones transverse, nearly equidistant, curved, forming oblong areoles filled up with anastomosing veins, which have subquadran- gular areoles and free veinlets; all the veins prominent beneath; sori very copious, in two rows within each primary transverse areole and almost always terminating a short free veinlet, rarely seen upon the union of two or more veinlets. Polypodium Heracleum. Kze. in Bot. Zeit. v. 6. p. 117. Metten. Polypod. p. 117. t. ‘i.f. 52 (a small section of a segment, showing the venation and sori only). Polypodium morbillosum. Sort. (fide Metten.) not Presl. Dkynarta morbillosa. J. 8m. Journ. of Bot. v. 3. p. 398, and Cat. of Cult. Kerns, p. 14 (excluding the synonyms of Presl). HaB. Malay Islands, Java, Zollinger, n. 977 {Metten.), Wm. Lobb. Isle Samar, Philippines, Cuming, n. 330. We spoke of this plant in our volume of ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ under tab. xci., Polypodium (Drynaria) coronans, Wall., the near ally of that almost equally magnificent species, as the P. morbillosum of Presl, the name by which we received the living plant from the Dutch gardens;-but a slight comparison of the venation and position of the sori here and in the figure of P. morbillosum as given by Presl in his ' Reliquiae Haenkeanse ’ will satisfy any one that the two are far from being identical. Both, according to Mettenius, are in cultivation in the German gardens, but the true morbillosum is quite unknown to us. Like the P. coronans, the ample fronds form a splendid crown to the thick creeping caudex, which latter is densely clothed with rich golden-tawny, long, subulate, membranaceous scales; that of P. coronans has scales of the same colour indeed, but broader, strongly reticulated, and quite villous. Though the general form JANUARY 1st, 1861.be the same in the two, here the number of segments is fewer, and they are very much larger and wider. But the more striking difference is in the venation and sori. Here, where the areoles are seen to have a double row of several sori, the corresponding areoles in coronans have only one sorus in each. Fig. 1. Portion of a tuft of fronds on an exceedingly reduced scale. 2. Small fertile segment,—uat. size. 3. Portion of a segment, showing the venation and sori,—magnified. "W!Pitj3vleL et lith Vincent Brooks, ImpPlate 2. TBICHOMANES (§ Hymenostachys) elegans. Elegant Bristle-Fern. Trichomanes (Hymenostachys) elegans; caudex very short, indistinct, erect, with copious, long, wiry, descending roots; stipites tufted; sterile fronds numerous, broad-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, oblong-obtuse, serrated, acu- minate or frequently terminating in a very prolonged rachis, proliferous at its apex; fertile fronds one to three, broad-linear, margined on both sides with the very numerous, coadunate, cylindrical, obtusely bidentate involucres; receptacle elongated, filiform, much exserted; veins anastomosing. Trichomanes elegans. Rudge, PI. Guian. p. 24. t. 35 (excl. the fertile frond of T. spieatum). Hook. Gen. Fit. t. 108 (not Exot. FI.). Hook. Gen. et Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 114. Hymenostachys diversifrons. Borg in Diet. Class. d’Hist. Nat. v. 8. p. 462, cum Ic. Hymenostachys elegans and osmundioides. Presl, Hymenoph. p. 11. Ekea Boryi. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenophyll.p. 7. Hab. Tropical America, terrestrial; in shady woods, French Guiana, Poiteau, Leprieur. British Guiana, ScJwmburgk, n. 1030. Valley of the Amazon, Spruce, n. 2182, 2944. Isthmus of Panama, Cuming, n. 1127; Seemann, n. 648 ; Fendler, n. 388. Trinidad, Purdie, Cruger. Jamaica, Purdie. Presl speaks of this as “planta in herbariis rarissima;” but its place of growth in damp shady woods, together with its lurid colour, have probably caused it to be overlooked. In form and texture it is very attractive; and though we do not agree with Presl in regard to its rarity in tropical America, no Fern is pro- bably more rare and so little known as this in cultivation, and it only requires to be seen to be appreciated. It is but of late years that any of the Hymenophyllacea; have been seen in culti- vation ; but owing to the success that has attended the attempts with our native species of Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes, the far more beautiful tropical species have recently been imported, and the stoves of Kew, and still more, we believe, of Mr. Back- house of York, already exhibit many lovely species from the West Indies. We are indebted to Dr. Cruger, the Government Botanist, Trinidad, for plants of the Trichomanes here figured. This and all its congeners succeed best under a bell-glass or in small Wardian cases, even within a damp tropical fernery. Except in size, the present species is very constant to the cha- JANUARY 1ST, 1861.racters above given: we possess specimens scarcely five inches long, including the root, and all intermediate grades to eighteen or twenty inches. The caudex is generally small and indistinct, perpendicular, clothed with numerous thick wiry I’oots. The largest of our sterile fronds is two and a quarter inches broad, divided almost to the base into spreading segments finely ser- rated at the margins; often the midrib is prolonged for some inches into a tail-like point, proliferous at the extremity. The fertile fronds are always much longer than the sterile one, nar- rower, linear and entire, the whole margin formed of the closely compacted and coadunate involucres, from which the columella or receptacle (its base clothed with capsules) is much exserted. It is the general prolongation or exsertion of these bristle-shaped receptacles that has suggested the English specific name. Fig. 1. Sterile and fertile fronds (from the same root),—nat. size. 2. Fertile frond,—nat. size. 3. Portion of a segment of the sterile frond. 4. Section of a fertile frond. 5. Involucre laid open, showing the capsules surrounding the columella. 6. Capsule :—all Magnified.Vincent Brooks, Imp. W. Rtch Ael. Ltlith..Plate 3. HYMENOLEPIS spicata, Pr.; var. brachystacJiys. Serpent's Tongue Hgpolepis; short-spiked var. Hymenolepis spicata; caudex creeping, scaly, tuberculate; fronds approxi- mate, shortly petiolate, articulated upon a bulb-like tubercle, lanceolate, coriaceo-carnose, contracted at the apex into a linear appendage, varying much in length, and soriferous; veins copiously anastomosing, areoles with free veinlets. Var. macrostachys; fronds narrow, and spike much elongated. Hymenolepis spicata. Fred, jEpimel. Bot. p. 159. J. Sm. Kew Ferns, p. 1,• Cult. Ferns, p. 7. Hook. Exot. Ferns, if. 88. Hymenolepis ophioglossoides. Kaulf. Emm. Fit. p. 146. t. 1./. 9 (figure lad). Blume, Enum. Fit. Jav.p. 200. Kze. in Schk.Fil. Suppl.p. 99. t. 47./. 1. Hymenolepis revoluta. Bl. En. Fil. Jav. p. 201. Kze. in Sch/c. Fit. Suppl. p. 101. t. 47./. 2. Presl, Epimel. Bot. p. 160. Hyalolepis ophioglossoides and revoluta. Kze. in Linncea, v. 23. pt. 2. p. 258. Metten. Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 28. Acrostichum spicatum. Linn. Suppl.p. 444. Cav. Frail. 1801. n. 569. Sm. Lc. ined. t. 49. Onoclea spicata. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 110 and 303. SchiZjEA spicata. Sm. Act. Taur. v. 5. p. 53. Lomaria spicata. Willd. Sp. FI. 5. p 289. Gymnopteris spicata. Presl, Tent. Fterid.p. 244. t. 11./. 7. Var. brachystachys; fronds broader, spike short, very obtuse (Tab.Nostr. 3). Hab. India, especially the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and the Pacific Islands, Ceylon, Bourbon, Mauritius, Assam and Khasya, Churra and Sik- kim, Philippine Islands, Java, Penang, Society and Fiji Islands, and Solo- mon’s Group ; Brisbane, North Australia. (See ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ t. lxxxviii., for more particular localities of the species.) The ordinary form of this plant is well represented and fully described in the ‘Exotic Ferns’ above quoted, and from garden specimens which differ in no respect from native ones. Another form, that here given, is also cultivated at Kew from plants re- ceived from the Leipzig Garden, under the name of II. ophio- glossoides, but from what locality is not stated. The numerous fronds are very uniform in their great breadth, and in the singu- larly short and broad spike; so different at first sight from the ordinary state of the plant, that persons familiar with the Fern JANUARY 1ST, 1861.tribe have supposed it to be distinct. The numerous specimens in my herbarium do contain specimens with fronds as large as those here figured, and some with the spikes so short, as to sa- tisfy me that, though this may be a form produced by cultiva- tion, it is only a variety of //. spicata; and these specimens further serve to convince me that only two distinct species of the genus are yet known, viz. II. spicata and II. platyrhynchos (figured in our Ic. Plant, p. 142). With regard to the place of this genus in the system, the young fructifications on the living plants have almost satisfied me that Willdenow was not far wrong when he referred it to Lomaria, or Presl, in his ‘ Tentamen Pteridologise’ (the best and soundest of all his Fern publications), who placed it in his genus Gymnopleris (see Gymnopteris qnercifolia, ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ tab. lxxxi.). I think it is impossible to look at figs. 2 and 3 of the present Plate, without recognizing a true indusium or involucre, exactly as in Lomaria, and a very broad one too. It is true that in age the involucres become patent, forced back by the copious capsules, and then the fertile portion has quite an acrostochoid appearance. Indeed, if the whole frond of our plant (instead of the apex only) became fertile, we should have (save in the vena- tion) a Lomaria very much resembling the entire-fronded forms of Lomaria Patersoni (see ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ t. xlix.). Plate 3. Sterile and fertile fronds of Hymenolepis spicata, var. brachystachys. Pig. 1. Portion of the sterile frond, showing the venation,—magnified. 2. Fertile portion, young, the sorus still concealed by the involucre,—natural size. 3. Portion of a spike, with the involucre bursting open and showing the numerous capsules, mixed with the copious peltate scales,—magnified. 4. Capsule; and 5. Peltate scales,—more highly magnified.Vmcenb .Brooks, inm WFitah.,icl.etlith.“Plate 4. GYMNOGBAMME trieoliata, Desv. Ternate-leaved Gymnogranme. Gymnogramme trifoliata; tall, erect, rigid; caudex shortly creeping; stipes stout (and the rachis), bright castaneous, glossy, at the base squarrose, with sparse broad-subulate scales; fronds oblong-lanceolate, elongate, pinnate; pinnae numerous, lower ones petiolate, ternate, upper ones sessile, simple, and, as well as the pinnules, linear-lanceolate, serrulate, naked, or clothed with a yellow or whitish powder beneath; veins oblique, approximate, clothed with the narrow lines of sori, which are at length confluent. Gymnogramme trifoliata. Desv. Journ. Bot. v. 1. p. 25, and in Mem. Soc. Linn, v. 6.p. 214. Acrostichum trifoliatum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1527. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 119. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 13. Schk. Fil.p. 3. t. 3. et 22. Hemionitis trifoliata. H. B. K. Nov. Gen. Am. v. 1. p. 4. Trismeria argentea, T. aurea, and T. microphylla? (sterile). Fee, Gen. Fil.p. 165. Phyllitis ramosa trifida. Sloan, Jam. v. 1. t. 45./. 2. Lingua cervina triphylla, etc. Plum. p. 123./. 144. Hab. Abundant in Jamaica, and probably in the West Indian Islands generally; Cuba, C. Wright. Brazil, Sellow. New Grenada, Schlim, Fendler, Moritz. Guatemala, Skinner. Peru, Cuming; Lima, Seemann; Areca, Lechler; Tara- pota, Spruce. A very noble, erect, and peculiar-looking tropical American Fern, of which many of our native specimens are from three to four feet high, with the stout stipes and the very straight rachis of a rich glossy chestnut colour, the former clothed with brown squarrose scales at the base; most of the pinnae are ternate, that is to say, each short petiole bears three pinnules; towards the summit of the frond a few of the pinnae bear two pinnules, but the uppermost ones are all undivided, and, as M. Fee justly observes, resemble the leaves of Salix viminalis. The fructifi- cation is mostly confined to the pinnae on the upper half of the frond, where it appears covering the copious forked veins, and so abundant and close-placed as eventually to become confluent, clothing all the back of the frond, then resembling an Acrosti- chum, as it has often been called. These fructifications are accom- panied by a pulverulent substance, sometimes yellow, but often white, which is considered to be a waxy secretion from the frond, JANUARY 1ST, 1861.but which in all my numerous specimens never appears on the sterile plant, or on the lower and sterile pinnae. We cannot agree with M. Fee in the propriety of constituting a new genus of this Gymnogramme (“ Trismeria ”) still less in making two, or rather three, species dependent on the colour of the powdery secretion, which, as in other genera of Ferns with a similar secretion (see Cheilanthus argentea at tab. xcv., and observations thereupon, of ' Exotic Ferns’), varies from almost a pure white to full yellow. Fig. 1. Very much diminished plant of Gymnogramme trifoliata. 2 and 3. Base and apex of a frond,—nat. size. 4. Portion of a fertile pinna,—magnified.Plate 5. POLYPODIUM (§ Dbynaria) diveesifolitjm, Br. Diverse-leaved Polypody. Polypodium (Drynaria) diversifolium ; caudex stout, elongated, clothed with ferruginous, long-pointed scales ; frauds of two kinds collected together in a sort of coronal tuft; sterile ones a span. or more long, sessile, oblong- ovate, acuminate, caudate at the base, subpellucid, costate, tawny, lobato- pinnatifid; segments obtuse, ovate, the upper ones lanceolate; fertile ones long-stipitate, two to four feet long, lanceolate, pinnate; pinnae distant, a span to a foot long, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, subpetiolate, coriaceous, green, articulated upon the rachis, with a depression or obscure gland often at the inferior base, crenate; sori sunk in the frond in two rows, one on each side the costa ; primary veins in the sterile fronds pinnated, secondary ones strongly reticulated with angular, oblong areoles, having no free vein- lets ; fertile fronds, primary veins indistinctly pinnate, the rest irregularly anastomosing, with here and there free veinlets in the areoles. Polypodium diversifolium. Br. Prodr. p. 147. Polypodium Gaudichaudii. Bory, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. l.o. 5. p. 471. t. 13. Bl. Fil. Jew. p. 158. t. 67. Metten. Polypod. p. 120. t. 3./. 46 and 47 {ve- nation only). Polypodium quercifolium. Willd. Sp. PI. p. 170, not Linn. (fide Meltenius). Drynaria diversifolia. J. Sm. Journ. of Bot. v. 3.p. 398; Cat. of Cult. Ferns, p. 14. Drynaria piunata. Fee, Gen.p. 272. Polypodium glaucistipes. Wall. Cat. n. 297. Hab. Tropical Australia, R. Brown, F. Mueller. Pacific Islands, Isle of Rawak, Gaudichaud. Isle of Pines, Aneiteum, and Fiji Islands, Milne, Harvey. Malay Archipelago, Philippine Islands, Cuming, n. 248 and 263. Penang, Wallicli. Java, Blume, Zollinger. Malay Peninsula, Sir Wm. Norris. M. Bory de St. Vincent, when he formed his genus Drynaria, characterized it as having the fronds of two kinds (biform, not uniform), that is, having the sterile fronds short, broad, sessile, somewhat resembling a dried oak-leaf (whence the name, from 8pvs, an oaJc), whilst the fertile fronds are totally different, long- petioled and deeply pinnatifid or pinnated. Mr. J. Smith and Mr. Moore adopt the genus, retaining the above character, but including in it the Polypodium Heracleum, Kze. (Drynaria mor- billosa, J. Sm. and Moore), figured in our last number, Plate 1, and Polypodium coronans, Wall. These have perfectly uniform fronds, or, in other words, each frond seems to combine the two ; the base in texture and general form resembles the sterile fronds FEBRUARY 1ST, 1861.of true Drynaria, the rest upwards gradually becoming fertile. I see no objection to such a union in the group, but it is hard to say how these latter differ from P/iymatodes. The young un- developed fertile frond, indeed, as seen in our reduced figure of the Polyp. Heracleum (Plate 1), bears a very close resemblance to the fully-developed sterile frond of the present plant; but it gradually changes its character, and is terminated by the fertile portion. P. diversifolium is remarkable among the true Drynaria in having the fertile fronds pinnated, not pinnatifid. Brown was the first to detect this species in tropical Australia, where Malayan Perns may be looked for. The present is one among the most beautiful of Ferns in the tropical fern-house of Kew, and is a species that seems peculiar to the Malayan Archipelago and the islands between it and north-eastern tropical Australia, which appears to be its western limit. Fig. 1 represents a very reduced figure of a tuft, or crown, of sterile and fertile fronds of Polypodium diversifolium, Br. 2. Caudex, with a small barren froud, and a stipes of a fertile frond. 3. Fertile pinna :—natural size. 4. Base of a fertile pinna, with sori, showing the venation,—magnified.6. WKtch,3d..etMh "Vincexit BroQksJinp.Plate 6. GYMNOPTERIS dectjrkens, Hook. (not of Fil. Exot.) Decurrent Gymnopteris. Gymnopteris decurrens; caudex long, creeping, flexuose, scarcely paleaceous; fronds distant, sterile ones broadly ovato-lanceolate, costate, membranaceous, undivided, acuminate, below rather suddenly attenuated and long, decurrent upon the stipes sometimes almost to the base; primary veins pinnate, se- condary ones arcuato-transverse, and forming large subquadrangular areoles, which are filled by anastomosing veinlets, whose angular areoles have free, clavate veinlets; stipes short, epaleaceous ; sterile fronds narrow-linear, elon- gated, upon very long stipites, undivided, quite scaleless; sori continuous, uniform on each side the costa, and extending partially to the upper side. Leptochilus decurrens. Bl. Enum. Fil. Jav.p. 206. Fee, Acrost. p. 88. <.48. /. 2. Acrostichum rivulare. Wall. Cat. n. 2165. IIab. Java, Blume. Penang, Wallich. Ceylon, common, Mrs. Gen. Walker, Gardner, n. 1157. “Nibari,” Dr. Buck. Hamilton, in Wall. Assam, Si- mons. Khasya, 2-3000 feet of elevation, Hooker fil. and Thomson. That this is the Leptochilus decurrens of Blume, as far as can be decided by Fee’s figure, there can be no doubt. We can now record it a native of Penang, as well as of. Java and of Cey- lon, and of Khasya and Assam, on the continent of India, Bengal Presidency. It has a very close resemblance to the Lept. lanceo- latus of Fee, inhabiting similar regions in tropical India, but that has narrower sterile fronds and less pronounced primary pinnated veins. All the species of Leptochilus known to me arc very va- riable, and I have reason to think that Ceylon specimens which have accompanied some of this Gymnopt. decurrens, may be a state of the same plant. Blume compares this species with Lep- tochilus axillaris of Kaulfuss ; but that is remarkable for its very long scandent caudex, and is the Lomaria serpens, Wall. Cat. n. 32. Leptochilus of Kaulfuss, as it appears to me, should be united to Gymnopteris, and ranked in the acrostichoid Ferns; but in transferring our present species there, I am obliged to sacrifice the name Gymnopteris decurrens (figured and described in the ‘ Filices Exoticae,’ t. 94), and I would suggest that that be called Gymnopteris Harlandi, after its discoverer in Hongkong. FEBRUARY 1st, 1861.Our present species is cultivated in the fern-stove at Kevv. Plate 6. Sterile and fertile fronds of Gymnopteris deem Fig. 1. Portion of the sterile frond, showing the venation, fertile frond, showing the sori:—magnified. •rens,—natural size. 2. Section from theWFitoh,dd.et]ith- Vincent Brooks ^TripPlate 7. DAYALLIA (§ Htjmata) pedata, Sm. Pedate Davattia. Davallia (Humata) pedata; caudex long, creeping, paleaceous; fronds stipitate, very firm and coriaceous, small (three to live inches long), subovate, some- what five-angled, tripartito-pinnatifid; segments free, oblong, strongly ser- rate or subpinnatifid, lowest pair free from the rest, and at the inferior base (which is broader than the superior) bipinnatifid; involucres small, semi- orbicular, subterminal and marginal between the serratures, terminating a thickened vein ; stipes scaly below. Davallia pedata. Sm. Act. Taw. v. 5. p. 414. Sm. Syn. Fit. pp. 131 and 341 {excl. Syn. Cav. ?). Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 466. Wall. Cat. n. 250. Hook. Sp. Ml. v. 1. p. 154. t. 45 A. Nees and Bl. PI. Jav. in Act. Nat. Cur. v. 11. t. 13./. 1. Davallia subimbricata. Bl. Fm. Ml. Jav. p. 231. Humata pedata. J. Sm. Pachypleuria pedata. Fee, Gen. Ml. p. 322. Adiantum repens. Linn. Suppl.p. 446. Hab. Malay Archipelago, frequent, Java, Blume and others. Singapore and Sylhet, Wallich. Ceylon, abundant. Mauritius and Bourbon. Of the beautiful genus Davallia (so named by Sir J. E. Smith, in compliment to a very amiable Swiss botanist, M. Edmund Davall), one hundred and twelve species are enumerated in our ‘ Genera et Species Filicum,’ many of them very ill-defined by authors, it is true, and doubtfully distinct. The present is an elegant and easily recognized member of the genus, and derives its specific name from the word pedatus, botanically used to imply a leaf or frond which is “ tripartite, and has the lateral di- visions again divided in the fore (or anterior) part,” thus render- ing their two sides very unequal. The fronds vary more in size than in form or ramification: we have seen specimens scarcely more than an inch in length, while some attain to nearly six inches. In cultivation it requires the heat of the stove, and is best kept in a broad pan, so that its long branching caudex may have room to extend over the surface, and attach itself by its fibrous radicles. Cultivated in the warm stove at Kew. Plate 7 represents a plant of Davallia pedata, Sm., with sterile and fertile fronds,—natural size. Fig. 1. Fertile segment,—magnified. 2. Sori, one with the involucre removed to show the capsules,—more magnified. FEBRUARY 1ST, 1861.8. WFitd^diUtlLth.Plate 8. TRICHOMANES pinnatum, Eed/w. Pinnated Bristle-Pern. Tiuciiomanes pinnatum; caudex erect or ascending, with copious wiry roots; fronds long-stipitate, tufted, tall, a span to 1| foot, ligulato-lanceolate and simple, or ovato- or deltoideo-lanceolate and pinnated with 4-20 oblong- or linear-lanceolate, membranaceous, costate, subentire or strongly serrated pinnae, from 3-6 inches long, upper ones more or less confluent, terminal one the longest, or it is replaced by an extension of the rachis (for 3 to 8-10 inches) which is then rooting and proliferous; veins strong, pinnated, simple or forked, close-placed, united to a thickened margin; between these are transverse, spurious veinlets (often obsolete or none), free or connecting the adjacent veins; sori very copious, marginal; involucres subpetiolate, cylin- drical, a little dilated and shortly 2-lipped above; columella very long. Trichomanes pinnatum. Redw. Ml. Gen. et Sp. cum ic. t. 4. /. 1. Sw. Syn. I'd. p. 142. Kze. in Rot. Zeit. v. 5. p. 352. Linncea, v. 21. J. G. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. fasc. 23. p. 247; and in Ennm. Plant. Vase. Crypt. Chit, p. 39.—Neurophyllum pinnatum, Presl, Hymenopli. p. 19. t. 4.—Neuro- manes Hedwigii, Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenophyll. p. 8. Trichomanes floribundum. H.B.K. in TVilld. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 505. Nov. Gen. Am. 1. p. 25. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 9. Hook. Sp. Ml. v. 1. p. 129. Trichomanes pennatum. Kaulf. Enum. p. 261. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1 .p. 129. J. G. Sturm in Mart. Ft. Bras. fasc. 23. p. 248.—Trichomanes spectabile, Bl. Fil. Luschnath. Baldens, n. 33, and Kze. in Linncea, v. 14. p. 287 {fide J. G. Sturm).—Neurophyllum pennatum, Presl, Hymenophyll. p. 19.— Ncuromanes Kaulfussii, Van den Bosch, Enum. Hymenoph. p. 8. Trichomanes Schomburgkianum. J. G. Sturm, in Mart. Bl. Bras. fasc. 21. p. 249 {according to the references to Schomburgk’s specimens in my herbarium.). Neuromanes immersum. Van den Bosch, Enum. Hymenophyll. p. 9? {Frond simple.) Trichomanes Vittaria. Be Cand. in Poir. Encycl. Metli. v. 8. p. 65. Hook, in Land. Journ. Bot. v. 1. p. 137. t. 5. J. Sm. in Bond. J. B. p. 200.—Tri- chomanes floribundum, /3 Vittaria, Splitgerb. En. FI. Surinam,p. 52. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 129.—Neurophyllum Vittaria, Pr. Hymenoph. p. 19.—Neu- romanes Vittaria, Van den Bosch, Enum. Hymenoph. p. 9. {Spurious transverse veins wanting.) Neurophyllum abruptum. Fee, 1 Mem. 14. t. 1./. 5 {small portion of a pinna and name only).—Neuromanes abruptum. Van den Bosch, Enum. Hymenoph. p. 10.—Trichomanes Hostmannianum, Kze. Bot. Zeit. v: 5. p. 352. Schk. Fil. Suppl. 1.110. J. G. Sturm {excellent).—Neurophyllum Hostmannianum, Kl. in Linncea, v. 18. p. 532, in Mart. Bl. Bras. fasc. 21. p. 250.—Odon- tomanes Hostmannianum, Presl, Epimel. Bot. p. 21. Hab. Tropical and West Indian Islands; from Mexico (Oaxaca) in the north, to the tropic of Capricorn, south, on both sides the vast continent of America, apparently most abundant under the Equator. Cultivated in the Royal Gardens of Kew. FEBRUARY 1ST, 1861.It would be filling our pages unprofitably if I were to give a list of the special localities of this very beautiful tropical .American Fern, the most beautiful of a very beautiful genus; they are very numerous. But it does behove me to explain why I have brought together so many synonyms, and no less than three genera, of some of our most able Fern-botanists, of what I cannot but consider, after the most careful investigation, not only to be a true Trichomanes, but all relating to one and the same species. I ought to make an exception perhaps in the case of the Neuromanes immersum of Dr. Van den Bosch, which I have not seen. I have referred it here doubtfully. It is said by the learned author, “ a reliquis ” (meaning the species or forms of Neuromanes) “differt stature minore, consistentia frondis et structure, soris immersis.” The chief character here appears to be the immersed sori. I have samples of the common form with involucres partially immersed, while others are almost sti- pitate on the apex of an excurrent nerve; and a slight modifica- tion of cellular structure is common to this as to many other species of Ferns, without affecting specific character. As regards the genus, Hedwig, the first describer and figurer of this species (hence I erred in adopting Humboldt’s and Willde- now’s appropriate name of jloribundum rather than ofpinnatum), and all authors who have figured this Fern, have represented the secunclary transverse veinlets sometimes short and free, and sometimes elongated and uniting with the opposite primary vein. This character Presl considered of so much importance as to re- quire the separation of the plants as a genus, and he named it Neurophyllum. Dr. Van den Bosch adopts the genus, but properly changes the name to Neuromanes, there being already a Neuro- phyllum amongst Unbelliferce, and he constitutes two divisions or groups,—1, venae venulis spurns transversalibm reticulatim conjunctce; and 2, “ venulis transversalibus nullis.” This latter section includes the Neurophyllum abrupturn, Fee (Tr. Hostman- nianmn, Kze.) * a plant with every character of Tr. pinnatum, save the absence of these spurious transverse veinlets ; but thus, in reality, removing it from Presl’s Neurophyllum itself. With great consistency to his principles, Presl constitutes of this another genus, “ Odontomanes,” in his ' Epimelise Botanicao.’ My own numerous specimens have satisfied me that the presence of these spurious veinlets, though very general, is by no means to be de- pended upon ; all intermediate stages may be seen, from very co- pious and evident transverse veinlets, to their entire absence, as Hostmann’s Surinam plant, n. 75, New Granada ones from Schlim, n. 228, Purdie’s from Santa Martha, French Guiana, from Delessert, and specimens from the Bana River, Valley of the Amazons, Spruce, etc., all of which are more or less destitute of these veinlets.In regard to Tr. Vittaria of De Cand. and others, having no intermediate specimens at the time I published my figure aud description of that plant, I expressed myself inclined to adopt De Candolle’s view of its distinctness. But in my ‘ Species Fi- licum ’ I united them, and, to my great satisfaction, I have since received perfect specimens of the simple and the pinnated form arising from one and the same root! gathered by Mr. Spruce in the forest near Para, which I hope will settle the question of their identity. Tr. pematum, retained by most authors, is con- sidered by J. G. Sturm to be identical with Tr. floribundmn of Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 9, and I am well satisfied with that plant being the true pinnatimi of Hedwig. Of Tr. Schomburg- kianmn I possess the very specimens referred to by Sturm (Schom- burgle ft n. 299 and 1155); they exhibit no distinguishing cha- racters whatever. The species is doubtless variable. Our largest specimen is two and a half feet long, the terminal pinna is a foot long; the costa there runs out six inches (and more) and then bears a solitary pinna. Am excurrent rachis instead of a terminal pinna is very common, and sometimes it throws out only roots, at other times young plants; in one case these young plants have no venules, while the parent frond has them sufficiently conspi- cuous. Plate 8. Caudex of Trichomanes pinnatum, Hedw., bearing two kinds of fronds, undivided and pinnated,—nat. size. Fig. 1. Portion of a pinna, with sori and spurious veins,—magnified. 2, 3. Involucres, one laid open to show the attachment of the sorus to the columella,—more magnified. (7Plate 9. PLATYCERIUM jEthiopicum, Hook. yEthiopian Stag s-Horn Fern. Platycerium JEthiopicum; fronds ample, when young canescent all over with stellated, sessile and pedicellate hairs; sterile ones bifarious, suborbicular, imbricated, variously lobed and sinuated, subcoriaceo-membrauaceous;/w^e ones drooping, carnoso-coriaceous, caneseent, beneath shortly petiolated, broad-cuneatein circumscription, bifurcate; segments all divergent, ultimate ones sharply acuminated ; sorus dark brown, nearly of the shape of the letter V, situated beneath the sinus of the ultimate fork. NeukoplaTYCEROS iEthiopicus. Plulc. Almagest, p. 151. t. 429. f. 2 (young and very imperfect fertile frond). Pee, Hist, des Acrost. p. 103. t. 64 (sterile fronds erect, instead of pendent). Acrostichum stemaria. Palisot de Beam. FI. d'Oware et da Benin, v. 1. p. 2. t. 2. {very much reduced figure, and with sterile frond erect). Platycerium Stemmaria. Besv. in Act. Soc. Linn, de Paris, v. 6. p. 213. Acrostichum alcicorue. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 12, in paid (not Br.). Schk. Fil. v. 1. t. 2 [copiedfrom Plulcenet). Hab. Tropical Western Africa, “.(Ethiopia” (Plukenet), Oware, on old Man- grove-trees only, Palisot de Beauvois. Guinea Coast, Afzelius, Leprieur. Senegambia, Heudelot, n. 764 [Herb. Nostr.). Sierra Leone, Vogel, Cap- tain Babington, Hr. Kirk, etc. Niger, probably abundant, Vogel, Barter (at Idda, on rocks). Fernando Po, Prince’s Island, Nun river, Gustav Mann, Vogel, Barltr. Tropical Africa, south of the Line, Dr. Curror. Although an extremely distinct species of Platycerium, this is a very variable one in its different stages of growth, which will easily account for the different representations given by different authors. Plukenet, the first author who brought this plant into notice, had only a small, half-developed fertile frond in view, too young to bear fructification, or even to have taken its perfect form. Palisot de Beauvois and Fee have erred in figuring the fertile fronds erect, as in Platycerium alcicorne, Br., and I should have erred in the same way, probably, had it not been my good fortune to have a fine living plant before me, where they are as pendent as in PI. grande, biforme, and Wallicldi. We have in- deed long cultivated the species in our fern-stove, but never had it fructify in perfection, till it was exposed to great dampness, and heat and the influence of steam. We regret that we are confined to an octavo plate in its representation, and it is only a portion of MARCH 1st, 1861.an apex of one of the bifurcations which can be introduced of the natural size. In shape both the sterile and fertile fronds vary extremely, the former from the diameter of the palm of the hand, to two and a half and three feet in length; and the latter from six inches, with perfect sori, to three feet; in the broadest segment, from one to six inches, and in one case a foot, and the spread of the fructification extending to that diameter. Our finest specimens are from Prince’s Island, where Barter and Mann record its unusual size compared with the specimens from the mainland. It often grows on the'Sandbox-tree. Unwilling as I am to change an old established specific name, I cannot but give the preference to that of Plukenet, which M. Fee has adopted. M. Palisot de Beauvois writes the specific name “ stemaria,” probably intended as stemmaria (from stevma, a crown), but he does not give this as his own, but as that of Commerson, MSS., attached to a drawing of some plant, of the kind, which that distinguished naturalist found in Madagascar, whence I possess specimens of the true PL alcicorne, collected by Boivin, and which is no doubt the stemaria of Commerson. No instance is yet recorded of the present species being found, save on the western tropical coast of Africa. It does not enter the Cape possessions, nor does it appear among the Ferns of Dr. Kirk, from Dr. Livingstone’s Zambesi Expedition. Dr. Kirk indeed sent home specimens from Sierra Leone, collected on his route to eastern tropical Africa. Its nearest affinity is doubtless with A. alcicorne, as we have already observed, and like that is prolific from the root; but its much broader and (in proportion) shorter and drooping fertile fronds, their sharper segments, and when fully developed, much larger sterile fronds, will readily dis- tinguish it. It propagates itself by offsets from the base of the frond. Fig. 1. Greatly reduced plant, with sterile and fertile fronds of Platycerium Mthwpicum. 3. Apex of a fertile frond, with sorus,—natural size. 3. Small portion of a fertile frond, from which part of the sorus is removed, showing the venation there,—magnified. V/ JJitxli.iiel. e t ]i th "Vincent Brooks, Imp.Plate 10. POLYPOD IUM (Eupolypodiuh) PECTINATTJM, L. Pectinated Polypody. Polypodium (Eupolypodium) pectimtum; eaudex moderately stout, elongated, horizontal, scaly, tuberculated above with the liases of the former year’s fronds and which are also scaly; stipites scattered, approximate, 1-5 inches long, terete, blackish-brown, especially hairy on one side ; fronds decurved, a foot to 1 -j foot long, 2-4 inches broad, lanceolate or ensiform, acuminate, more or less attenuated at the base, pinnatifid nearly to the rachis, firm- membranaceous, blackish-green when dry, villosulous; segments very nume- rous, horizontally patent, from a broad base which is singularly dilated up- wards, gradually but obtusely acuminated, entire or subsinuate, strongly costate, veins rather remote, internal not readily conspicuous, once or twice forked, sometimes anastomosing so as to form large costular ureoles, the lowest veinlets on the superior side soriferous; son globose, sulphur-coloured, forming a continuous series on each side between the margin and the costa; rachis and costa hairy, especially beneath. Polypodium pectinatum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1545. Sw. Syn. Fit. p. 32. Willd. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 180. Metten. Polyp, p. 59. Griseb. FI. Carib. p. 135 (excl. syn. Schk. ?). J. Sm. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 1, and in Seem. Bot. of H.M.S. Herald (quoting as a synonym, Schkuhrs t. 17, P. Schkuhrii, Raddi, which in his Cult. Ferns he retains as a distinct species). Goniophlebium pectinatum. J. Sm. in Hook. Lond. Journ. of Bot. v. 4. p. 57. Id. in Seem. Bot. of the Herald, p. 230 . Polypodium Lonchitidis folio. Petiv. Fil. t. 7./. 14. Polypodium nigrum tenerius sectum. Plum. Fil. p. 64. /. 80. Hab. West Indian Island and tropical America, probably abundant in numerous localities. Jamaica, Martinique, Dominica, St. Vincent, Guadeloupe, Cuba, etc., sent found by most travellers: Plumier, Swartz, Bancroft, M'Fadyen, Chs. Wright (n. 1017), Duchassaing. Guatemala, Skinner. Peru; Tarapota, Spruce, n. 4145 and 4146 (segments linear, very obtuse, sinuses very nar- row and acute). Brazil (S. Catharine’s), Mr. Fox, n. 231, Gardner, n. 126, Milne, M‘Gillivray, J.D. Hooker (chiefly about Bio). Para, Spruce, n. 1; and Sao Gabriel, summit of the Serra do Gama, Amazon, n. 2220. New Granada, frequent. Bogota, Holton, n. 36. Venezuela, Fendler, n. 220, 221. Caracas, Linden, n. 185, 129, Moritz, n. 255 ; (P. Otites, L. fide Metten., but the veins are free). Ocana, Schlim, n. 156, 369, 633, and 636. Columbia (Pacific side), Cuming, n. 121 and 1210. This Polypodium belongs to a group of the genus whose species are very ill-defined, and which I suspect vary consider- ably, a circumstance which leads to their being needlessly multi- plied ; but it would require more time and space than can here be MARCH 1st, 1861.given to unravel the confusion. It is a Linnaean and Swartzian plant, and the figure of Plunder, with which ours sufficiently accords, has been our guide. No good and more recent figure has been given of it, that I am aware; for the P pectinatum, of Schkuhr, Fil. t. 17. f. 2, is by most botanists now considered a distinct species, having the base of the frond broad and truncated, not attenuated, and decurrent, as it were, on the stipes. Unfortu- nately I have various intermediate states, which would appear to unite them. Certainly, too, my herbarium possesses other speci- mens, which I cannot distinguish from this, amongst them a plant of Sieber, “ Flora Mixta, n. 334,” which has the veins anastomo- sing, so as to form large costular areoles, each including the sori- ferous venule. This Polypodium of Sieber, Mettenius refers to P, Oiites, but in his character of that he does not notice the union of the veins : an authentic specimen from the latter of his P. Otites (Moritz, n. 555) has entirely free veins. Grisebach remarks under this Fern, “ Species contra eos, qui ex nervatura genera I’ilicum artificialia derivarunt, grave argumentum dat, nam ex- tant formae ubi venae juxta marginem pinnarum hinc inde ansas formant, alise verum pinnae dichotomiatn liberam ostendunt.” Hence, too, Mr. J. Smith has been led to refer this plant at one time to his Goniop/debium, at another to Eupolypodium. P. lomaricefonne, Kze., from an authentic specimen in my her- barium, is probably our plant with the venation anastomosing. P. Paridisecp, Fisch. and Langsd., P. Struthionis, L., P. Plu- mulci, Willd , P. Schkuhrii, Rad., and even P. curvatum, and perhaps some others, require a careful study and comparison, be- fore they can really and with confidence be pronounced distinct. Plate 10. Polypodum (Eupolypodium) pectinatum, L.,—naturalsize. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile segment, with sori,—magnified.WBitch., cLel. etilth. xent Brooks, Imp.Plate 11. TRICHOMANES Leprieurii, Kze. Leprieurs Bristle-Fern. Trichomanes Leprieurii; tufted, tall, ample, erect; fronds broadly ovate, pinnate ; pinnae distant, bi-tripinnatifid, the ultimate segments linear, some- times exceedingly narrow, acute, simple or bifid; main racbis very broad, compressed, marginato-ancipitate ; involucres supra-axillary, free, cylindri- cal, tapering below, the mouth entire, much spreading (not two-lipped); stipes compressed, marginato-ancipitate below the frond, subterete or tetra- gonal towards the base. Triciiomanes Leprieurii. Kze. Anal. Pteridogr.p. 48. Van den Bosch, Synops. Hymenophyl. p. 31. Trichomanes anceps. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 135. t. 40 C. Van den Bosch, Synops. Hymenophyl. p. 31 (who excludes my var. (3). Trichomanes ulegans. Rich, in Act. Paris (according to Belessert in Herb. Noslr., not Budge). Trichomanes rigidum. Kl. in Herb. Reg. Berol. and in Herb. Nostr. Trichomanes villosulum? TVall. Cat. n. p. 163 {a very bad specimen, slightly hairy on one side). Trichomanes achilleaefolium. J. Sm.En. Til. Philip. (name only, not TVilld.). Var./3; subpiloso-squamose, segments and divisions everywhere very narrow, linear- filiform, ultimate segments subsetaceous. Hook. Sp. Fil. l.c. t. 40 C.f. 3. Hab. Guiana, Richard. Brazil, Sellow, Leprieur. West Indies; Dominica, Dr. Imray, n. 60, 61; Trinidad, Cruger. Isle of Gorgona, Pacific side of America, Seemann. Singapore, Wallich, Cuming, n. 368. East Indies, TVal- lich, n. 163, cultivated at Kew.—(3. Philippine Islands, Cuming, n. 162 and 171. A most lovely species of a lovely genus; our largest specimen, from French Guiana, is more than a foot and a half long, and nearly as broad at the base. Van den Bosch is of opinion that under my T. anceps I have included other species. The opinion of so acute an observer is worthy of every respect, and he may be quite right. He has at any rate shown me that I have in my ‘ Species Filicum ’ entirely omitted Kunze’s earlier name of Tr. Leprieurii ; his plant is identical with my South American ones, and I gladly preserve that name. I have, indeed, during the time that has elapsed since the publication of the first vo- lume of ‘ Species Filicum/ received many specimens from diffe- rent localities, which I should be disposed to refer here; but the Hymenophyllacece are in better hands than mine at this march 1st, 1861.time. Our cultivated plants were received from Dr. Cruger, of Trinidad. Plate 11. Fertile plant of TricJiomanes Leprieurii,—natural size. 2. Seg- ment and portion of a racliis, with sori,—magnified.12.Plate 12. ADIANTUM (§ Euadiantum) polyphylltjm, Willd. Many-leaved Adiantum. Adiantum (Euadiantum) polyphyllum; stipes stout, one to two feet long, black - ebeneous, glossy, hairy below ; fronds two to three feet long, tripinnate, bright-green, linn-membranaceous, glossy; pinnae all petiolate, oblong- lanceolate, shortly acuminate; pinnules petiolulate, numerous, approximate, an inch and more long, horizontal, elliptical-oblong, almost forming a parallelogram, very obtuse,. inferior margin and superior base truncate, superior margin arcuate, lobed and serrated, lobes soriferous ; veins copious, approximate, flabellato-dichotomous; involucres reniformi-rotundate, large, convex, thick and hard, especially in the disk, rachises everywhere black- ebeneous and glossy. Adiantum polyphyllum. WiUd. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 154. H.B.K. Nov. Gen. Am. v. 1. p. 21 (not Kze.). Presl, Reliq. Hank. v. 1. p. 62. XL in Linttaa, v. 18. p. 554. Hook. Sp. Fit. v. 2. p. 49. Moore, hid. Fil.p. 34. Metten. Fit. Hort. Lips. p. 48. Adiantum cardiochlsena. Kze. in Linnaa, v. 17. p. 569, and in Bot. Zeit. v. 3. p. 281. Hook. Sp. Fit. v. 2. p. 51. t. 83 A. Fee, Gen. Fit. p. 114.1.11 B. f 2. Adiantum patens. Kze. in Linnaa, v. 23. p. 216 (fide Metten.). Hab. Caracas, Bredemeyer (Willd.), Moritz, n. 59, Funck, n. 438, Linden, n. 125. Tovar, Fendler, n. 80, Birschel. Trinidad, Aldridge, in Herb. J. Smith, Gruger. At the time the species of Adiantum were described in my ‘ Species Filicum,’ I had no means of knowing what was the A. 'polyphyllum of Willdenow; and of A. cardiochlcena I had au- thentic specimens, so that I preferred then publishing the present plant under that name, which however proves identical with the former. It is a very fine species, and worthy of a place in every tropical fernery; the stout intensely ebeneous-black stipites and rachises are well contrasted with the bright-green fronds, and the upper margin of the pinnules is fringed with a regular line of dark-brown kidney-shaped involucres. The species appears to be peculiar to Venezuela, the Caracas, and the adjacent island of Trinidad. Plate 12. Pig. 1. Very reduced outline figure of Adiantum polyphyllum. 2. Portion of a frond,—natural size. 4. Portion of a pinna, with two sori, one forced back to show the capsules :—magnified. march 1st, 1861.° ^ ° OySo O® ®y/QQGV VO oO . f&oc // ©©© o c ® 1 &&&& °c &0 O boo c9 sV>g>Oq J ogq0 /h. ^ 'QQ1 ®. ® 19 0 09 , ®D® e o> G®' <4 VBV, iiV . V' ^n,%\ \V! ^ *k Vs^%^ „ <. v. \<5Y*' ~ 0fe>e^ 9 v C & Co “WEitcti.flel .ttlifir Vincent Brooks, Imp rrPlate 13. ASPIDIUM (Cyrtomium) caryotideum, Wall. Caryota-leaved Shield-Fern. Aspidium (Cyrtomium) caryotideum; caudex short, thick, erect, densely palea- ceous, with large, erect scales, as are the bases of the erect, robust, caespi- tose stipites, which are ten to twelve inches long; fronds half a foot to two feet long, oblong, subcoriaceo-carnose, of a palish yellow, opaque, yel- lowish-green, pinnated; pinnae three to four, or even six inches long, ovate, much acuminated (sometimes repando-lobate), falcate, sharply serrated, su- perior base much broader than the inferior, undivided, or more generally with a long, sharp, acuminated appendage or ear, the lowest pair and ter- minal pinna often with one on each side; veins anastomosing, primary ones pinnate, flexuose, costal areoles with a solitary, free, soriferous veinlet, supe- rior ones with two to three clavate veinlets; sori very copious; involucre orbicular, peltate, entire or laciniated at the margin, rachis and rather short petioles setoso-paleaceous. Aspidium caryotideum. Wall. Cat. n. 376. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fit. t. 69. Kze. in Linncea, v. 24. p. 278. Metlen. Aspid. p. 32. Cyrtomium caryotideum. Pr. Tent. Plerid. p. 86. Aspidium anomophyllum. ZenJc. PI. Nilgh. t. 1 (identical with our plant'). Metten. A up id. p. 34. Cyrtomium falcatum. Raws, and Pappe, Syn. Fit. Afr. Austr. p. 15 (not Aspid. falcatum, Thunb.). Hab. India, chiefly in mountain regions: Nepal, Wallich; Kumaon, Griffith, Strachey and Winterbottom (at Dwali, elev. 8200 feet), T. Thomson; Bootan, Griffith, Booth; Sikkim-Himalaya, Hook. fil. and Thomson ; above Simla, Colonel Bates; Nilghiri, Dr. Wight, n. 108, Sir F. Adam, Zenker, Holienacker in PI. Nilgh. n. 912 and 913, named Aspid. anomophyllum., Zenk., var. macropteron (912), and var. micropterum, Kze. (». 913), M'lvor. South Africa : Natal, Major Garden; forests of British Caffraria, Captain Espinasse, 1856 (Rawson and Pappe).—Cultivated in the Fernery at Kew. We have figured the better-known, because longer cultivated in England, and hardy and closely allied Aspidium falcatum, Th., at Tab. xcii. of our ‘ Eilices Exoticae.’ To see the two in a living state, the differences are very striking, chiefly, however, arising from the deep vivid-green of falcatum, so glossy on the upper surface as to appear varnished there, whereas caryotideum lias pale-green foliage, dull on the surface, not in the slightest degree polished. In the dried state the colour and surface present no difference to the eye. In this condition the chief distinctions are to be found in the entire edge (never serrated) of falcatum, to- april 1st, 1861.gether with the absence of those long sharp ears, almost univer- sal on the inferior pinnae, and the distinct, sharp, even spinu- lose serratures of the margin, rarely confined to the acuminated apex. The two are, I have no doubt, quite distinct, but the pinnae are wonderfully variable, not only on different plants, but on one and the same individual. I possess young and sterile specimens, of which the frond is confined to, a single pinna, with three acuminated lobes, like the leaf of some exotic species of Maple. Some fronds have pinnae not two inches long, others six inches long and four broad. The auricles are of all sizes, from a small sharp lobe to a segment two to three inches long, bearing a slight resemblance to the leaves of Caryota urens. In some the pinna is disposed to be pinnatifid at the margin, with short, unequal segments; this may be considered an abnormal state, for in that case the serratures are there more or less obso- lete, or confined to the apex. I have clearly ascertained that the South African plant is the present species; not Aspidimn falcatum, as it was supposed to be. Plate 13. Fig. 1. Caudex, young frond and stipes, and lower pair of pinnae of a perfect frond of Aspidium (Cyrtomium) caryotideum, Wall.; and 2. the rest of the fertile frond:—natural size. 3. Portion of a fertile frond, showing the venation and sori. 4. An involucre, with margin more fimbriated than usual:— magnified./4 ¥ fitch,del .RtMi Vincent Brooks, Imp.Plate 14. POLYPODIUM (Phymatodes) loriforme, Wall. Strap-shaped Polypody. Polypodium (Phymatodes) loriforme; caudex moderately stout, creeping, branched, clothed with imbricated, appressed, grey-brown scales; fronds distant, a span to a foot or more long, subcoriaceous, lorato-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, rarely obtuse, strongly costate, entire, tapering gradually below into a short stipes, setoso-squamose at its very base; veins anasto- mosing, and forming rather large hexagonal areoles, with free clavate vein- lets ; sori usually large, in a regular series between the costa and the margin, globose or suboblong, superficial or scarcely sunk, concealed when young by copious peltate scales. Polypodium loriforme. Wall. Cat. n. 271. Metten. Polypod. p. 92. t. 1./. 49, 50 {fragments only). Phymatodes loriforme. Presl, Tent. Pterid.p. 196. Drynaria loriformis. J. Sm. Hook. Journ. of Pot. v. 4. t. 61. Pleopeltis loriformis. Pr. Pleopeltis nuda. Hook. Exot. FI. t. 63 (not of Gen. Til. t. 18, which is an allied species, Polypod. (Phymatodes) excavatum, Willd.). Polypodium Wightianum. Wall. Cat. n. .2222. Polypodium gladiatum. Wall. Cat. n. 279. Hab. East Indies: apparently common in all the hilly and mountain regions, from 5-10,000 feet in elevation, in Himalaya (Hooker and Thomson)-, abun- dant in the Nilghiries. Ceylon, frequent, Gardner and others. Sumatra, Tuschemacher. China: Fooehowfoo, Alexander; Amoy, Hance, n. 1410; Hongkong, Dr. Harland. Japan, Miss Nelson. Pacific Ocean: Oahu, Douglas, n. 56, Seemann, Barclay, Macrae, Nut-tall, Beechey, Dr. Diell.■— Cultivated at Kew. A species which has evidently a wide geographical range, but not extending, as far as we yet know, to Africa, unless indeed the Polypodium excavatum, Willd., Polyp, sesquipedale, Wall, and Mettenius, should prove identical, which seems very possible (for we find here the sori more or less sunk, and the venation is not very different), and never occurring in America. I believe the first published description was under our name of Pleopeltis nuda above quoted, a genus of Humboldt which is hardly tenable. I should have probably retained the specific name here, but that there is a Polypodium nudum of Mettenius. Plate 14. Polypodium (Phymatodes) loriforme, Wall.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile frond, showing the venation and sori,—magnified. 2. Cap- sule. 3. Peltate scale from the sorus:—more magnified. APRIL 1st, 1861.15. “W” Fitch, del etlith Vmceni Brooks, IrnpPlate 15. BLECHNUM (Salpiciil.ena) volubile, KI/s. Scandent Blechnum. Blechnum (Salpichlsena) volubile; caudex thick, creeping, bearing sparse, rigid scales; stipites very long, and, with the rachises, extending many feet in length, climbing over trees to a great height; fronds bipinnate; pinnae with three to seventeen petiolated pinnules, which are six to twelve inches long, lanceolate or linear-oblong lanceolate, serrated more or less only at the points, coriaceous, glossy, obtuse and unequal at the base; veins copious, simple or forked, united at their apices by the thickened margin; sori linear, continuous, close-pressed to the costa; involucre rigid-membranaceous, black, at first involutely cylindrical, membranaceous, at length patent and flat, breaking up into pieces of various lengths, and separating and falling away from the pinnules. Blechnum volubile. Kaulf. Enum. p. 159 (excl. the locality). Hook. Gen. Ml. t. 93; Sp. Ml. v. 3. p. 62. Kze. Annal. Pterid. p. 20. t. 13. Metten. Ml. Ifort. Lips. p. 63. Salpichl.ena volubilis. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. of Pot. v. 4. p. 168. Pr. Epimel. Pot. p. 122. Fee, Gen. Fil.p. 79. Blechnum scandens. Pory in Puperrey Voy. p. 272. t. 36. Salpichlsena scandens. Presl, Epim. Bot. p. 122. Hab. Tropical America, apparently frequent: Brazil, Sellow, Blanchet, Gardner, n 185, 5306, etc.; Guiana, Leprieur (sterile pinnules two inches broad), Schomburgk, Kappler; Peru, Leclder, n. 2542; Tarapota, eastern Peru, R. Spruce (without number, pinnules small, strongly serrated at the apex, sori very narrow); Columbia, Purdie (pinnules fifteen to sixteen inches long), Moritz, Punch, n. 776, Fendler, n. 17 (leaves almost elliptical, very abruptly acuminate). West Indies: Dominica, Pr. Imray, n. 53 (sterile pinnules 2) inches broad); Guadeloupe, L’Herminier; Trinidad, Cruger; Jamaica, Purdie.—Cultivated in the stove at Kew. This is, on several accounts, a very remarkable Fern; and not the least peculiarity is its very close general resemblance to our Lomaria volubilis (‘ Species Filicum,’ v. 3. t. cl.) from the Amazon. The latter however has thin, almost membranaceous pinnules, spinuloso-serrate at the apex, and somewhat cuneate and nearly equal at the base, dull and opaque on the surface, and the fertile pinnules are narrow-linear, much longer than the ste- rile ones, and with decided fructification of a Lomaria; marginal involucres, etc. Both climb over trees to a height of twenty and thirty feet, like a Lygodium. Our present plant has the fructi- fication of a Blechnum, even in its earliest stage; the involucres originate near the costa: these unroll, and at length lie quite flat APRIL 1st, 1861.upon the pinnule, and are sometimes so broad on the narrower pinnules, that they occupy a considerable portion, almost one- half, of the breadth of the pagina. At length they break trans- versely into pieces of unequal lengths, separating entirely from their attachment, and carry away with them the crowded cap- sules, of which the receptacle is at the inner base. Mr. Purdie has recorded his observation, that “ when the sori and involucres have separated and fallen away so completely that no trace of them is left, those pinnules now increase gradually in size, and remain broad sterile ones. Hence it is that the fructified pin- nules are always the youngest, and at the extremity of the plant, and in tall plants difficult to be procured.” Some of these ste- rile pinnae are among the largest of the pinnules of Ferns I have seen. Whatever claim botanists may think this Fern to possess to the rank of a genus, I cannot accede to M. Fee’s views of re- ferring to the same, as he has done, Blechnum orientate, Bl., and Finlaysonianum, Wall., and even Lomaria Patersoni. If a genus at all, it must be limited to one species, from which the Bl. scan- dens of Bory (Salpichlcena scandens, Presl) is by no means diffe- rent. Plate 15. Fig. 1. Small portion of a plant of Blechnum (Salpichlzena) volu- bile, Klfs. 2. Fertile pinnule :—natural size. 3. Portion of sterile pinna, show- ing the venation,—magnified. 4. Small portion of a fertile pinna, with portions of sori. 5. Involucre, from the base of which the capsules have fallen :—more highly magnified.W Pitch, del. et hth.. Vincent Brook$; IrctpPlate 16. ACROSTICHUM (Euacrostichum) Meyerianum, Hook. Meyer s Acrostichum. Acrostichum (Euacrostichum) Meyerianum ; caudex very long, stout, partially scaly, scandent on trees, here and there rooting parasitically ; stipites dis- tant, a foot and more long, stout, firm and glossy ; fronds dimorphous, very large, two to three feet long, sterile ones pinnated ; pinnae from a span to a foot long, petiolate, firm, pergamentaceous, glossy, oblong-lanceolate, acu- minate, sharply cartilagineo-serrate, the base obliquely cuneated, penni- veined; veins slender, very copious and compact, simple or forked near the base, uniting at their apices with the cartilaginous margin; petioles two to three lines long, not articulated upon the rachis, bearing a gland above; fertile fronds as large as the sterile, bipinnate, with a gland at the axil of the primary pinna:; pinnules very numerous, two to three inches long, narrow-linear, sessile or nearly so, soriferous beneath, except at the narrow, but scarcely involucriform margin. Lomaria Meyeriana. Kze. in Linncea, v. 10. p. 509. Stenochl.*na Meyeriana. Presl, Epimel. Bot. p. 166. J. Sm. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 42. Lomabiobotrys Meyeriana. Fee, Gen.Fil.p. 45. Lomaria secunda. Wall. Cat. n. 34. p. 2; and Cat. p. 61 (Lomaria longifolia, Wall.) Lomaria tenuifolia. “TJesv.” Bojer, Hort. Maurit. p. 407 (name only)-, an Stenochlffina tenuifolia, Moore ? Lomaria grandis. Bojer, Hort. Maurit. p. 407 (name only). Hab. South Africa; trunks of trees: between Omtendo and Omsameulo, climbing over the trees, Frege in Herb. Nostr. Natal, Guienzius, Plant, Herb. Natal, n. 91. Mauritius, Wallich in Herb. Nostr. East coast of tropical Africa, Isle of Galega, where it climbs to the top of the loftiest Cocoa-nut trees, Bojer in Herb. Nostr. (Lomaria grandis, Boj.), and Mada- gascar ; Nissolee, Brown.—Cultivated at Kew, in the warm stove. Stenochlcena was first constituted a genus by Mr. J. Smith “ on account of its peculiar habitmeaning thereby, I presume, its scandent habit; and seven species are included in it, with not much uniformity of habit or character, of which, however, S. scandens appears to be the type, and with its general aspect our plant sufficiently accords : but then the author acknowledges that, setting habit aside, it becomes difficult to detect a good technical character to distinguish it from Elaphoglossum, Schott, and Polybotrya, Humb. Presl, finding the pinnae of this species APRIL 1st, 1861.not articulated upon the stem, and the fertile frond to be bi- pinnate, formed a section of this under the name “ Caffraria,” and M. Fee afterwards raised it to the rank of a genus, Loma- riobotrys. It is doubtful whether it should be referred to the Lomaria- or to the Acrostichum-group; but seeing that the under surface of the pinnae is so clothed with capsules as to leave scarcely any margin which can be called involucre, I prefer placing it in the latter genus, where it ranks near Acrost. sorbi- folium, L.; a species which Mr. J. Smith at first referred to Stenochlcena, but subsequently to Lomariopsis of Fee ; in other words, to those true Acrosticha which have pinnated fronds. To strengthen the character of Stenochlcena, Moore lays stress* upon the presence of “ costal areoles ” to the pinnae, which Mr. J. Smith does not speak of in that light; and on the “ marginal gland near the base at the upper edge of the pinnae,” distinct enough, but of which Mr. Smith takes no notice. Now these so-called areoles, very seldom seen at all, and rarely indeed so distinct as we have represented them in our Fig. 4, appear to be constituted by a narrow thickened edge to the costa, which Mr. J. Smith describes as “ an obscure transverse vein, continuous with, and close to, the costa,” from which the veins originate : these occasionally separate a little from the costa; but this would seem to be rather an abnormal feature, and quite unsuited to form a generic mark of distinction. This noble Fern is not by any means confined to the Cape colony, but extends to eastern tropical Africa, Madagascar and its islands, and to Mauritius; and probably the Lomaria decompo- sita, of Desvaux, as well as the synonyms we have above intro- duced, all belong to this species; the Lomaria yrandis, from the island of Galega, certainly does. Plate 16. Fig. 1. Greatly reduced figure of Acrostichum (Euacrostiehum) Meyerianum, with fertile and sterile fronds. 2. Portion of caudex and base only of a sterile frond. 3. Single pinna (showing the gland) :—natural size. 4. Portion of a sterile pinna, showing the venation, and the thickened edge of the costa slightly separating from the costa. 5. Portion of a rachis and a pri- mary pinna from the fertile frond :—natural size. 6. Small portion of a fertile pinnule, with the sori removed from one side of the costa,—magnified. * “ A genus admirably marked by the costal areole and the marginal gland.”— Moore.Vincent Brooks, Irnp W’Fitd\,3iL. etlith \1/* /iV ■ VwlMwj ^ / / / j kfwll j m / *iPlate 17. DIDYMOCHLiENA lunulata, Desv. Blunt-leaved Didymocfdana. DidymociiL/ENA lunulata. Didymochl^ena lunulata. Desv. Mem. Soc. Linn. v. 6. p. 282. Adiantum lunulatum. “ Houtt. N. II. 2.v. 14. t. 100./. 1.” Didymochl/ENa sinuosa. Desv. Mem. Soc. Linn. v. 6. p. 28. Kaulf. Fn. Ml. p. 184. Mart. Ic. PI. Crypt. Bras. p. 95. t. 28 and 29./. 1. Hook. Gen. Fit. t. 8. DidymocHL/ENa squamata. Desv. Journ. Bot. Appl. v. 1. p. 5. t. 2./. 4. Aspidium truncatulum. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 52, 252. Willd. Sp. PI. p. 256. Didymochl/ENa truncatula. J. Sm. Gen. of Ferns, p. 84. Mon oc HL/EN a sinuosa. Gaudich. in Freyc. Voy. Bot. p. 340. t. 12./. 3. Tegularia adiantifolia. Reinw. Syll. PI. Ratisb. v. 2. p. 3. Diplazium pulcherrimum. Raddi, Fil. Bras. p. 42. t. 59. Aspidium squamatum. TPilld. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 250. Aspidium cultratum. Presl, Delic. Pray. v. 1. p. 174. DidymochL/ENA dimidiata. Kze. in Linrnxa, v. 18. p. 122. ScJik. Fil. Suppl. p. 200. t. 84. Pappe and Rawson, Syn. Fil. Afr. Austr. p. 15. Lonciiitis ramosa, cauliculis seu costis squamosis. Plum. Fil. p. 43. t. 56. Hab. Tropical America: Brazil, in mountain woods, frequent, Raddi, Martins, Bellow, Gardner, and others; New Grenada, Purdie, Fendler, Linden, Schlim (elevation, 7000 feet in Ocana); Andes of Ecuador and Peru, Mathews, Spruce, Jameson, Lechler. West Indian Islands: St, Domingo, Plumier; east side of Cuba, C. Wriyht. East Indies : Java, Thunberg, Blume, Ihos. Lobb; Luzon, Cuming. South Africa: Natal, Gueinzius, Dr. Pappe, Dr. Alexander Prior. Madagascar, Goudot. Fernando Po, elevation of 4000 mountains, “ Peak,” Gustav Mann. Island of Ovolau, Fiji group, on feet on the Milne, Brackenridge.—Cultivated in the fern-stoves of Kew. This splendid plant, in the stoves of the Royal Gardens, has n )t, with fertile fronds four feet in length, formed a stem or erect caudex more than six and a half inches high, and four inches in diameter. In Ecuador, Mr. Spruce speaks of it as “ a tufted Fern, two to five feet high.” Mr. Gustav Mann describes the caudex in Fernando Po as “ stout and erectbut in Brazil it would appear to be truly a Tree-Fern, of which the caudex is twelve to eighteen feet high; at least, as represented on the same plate with Alsophila armata, its trunk is equal in height with it, which is described to be of that size. From the summit of the caudex springs a noble tuft of stipitate fronds, four to MAY 1st, 1861.five feet long (stipites very paleaceous), bipinnate, primary pinnae a span to a foot long (their racliis hispido-squamose), oblong-lan- ceolate, gradually acuminate, dark bright-green above, paler be- neath. Pinnules 'close, compact, three-quarters to one inch long, coriaceo-mcmbranaceous, elliptical, irregularly rhomboid, on short petioles articulated on the rachis, superior base truncated, the apex obliquely truncate, obtuse, rarely acute, subsinuato-serrate; costa veniform, dividing the pinnule into two very unequal halves; veinlets once or twice forked, clavate at the apex, a su- perior veinlet bearing the elliptical sorus. Involucre elliptical, attached by its centre to a large receptacle, and having a deep, narrow, grooved line at the sinus, not extending to the apex, giving an oblong horse-shoe-like shape to the involucre, which, however, is free all round at the margin, and this reflexed in age. The sori are mostly confined to the superior sides of the pinnae, rarely seen on the lower and smaller half. The habit of this Fern is quite peculiar, and so is its fructifi- cation. The involucre is incorrectly described by the author of the genus as “geminate ” (hence its name). It is as much a single or solitary involucre as any among the group of Ferns, originating at the apex of a veinlet, of an oval or elliptical form, with a small sinus at the base, and its point of attachment, for a considerable length and breadth, the centre of which is indicated by a depressed line or furrow, which seems almost to divide it into two halves, thus giving the appearance of a narrow hippo- crepiform (horse-shoc-shaped) involucre. This large point of at- tachment causes the involucre to be persistent. Yet the gene- ral form and structure is not far removed from that of Neph.ro- ilimnt and especially to that Nephrodium which has been called Mesochlama. See our figure and description of Nephrodium (Me- sochkena, Br.) Javanicum in our ‘ Filices Exoticse,’ t. 72. It is quite certain that all the specimens discovered in Ame- rica, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands, belong to one and the same species, nor do I find any strongly marked varieties. The pinnules indeed vary on different parts of one and the same plant, as is the case with many species of Adiantum, with which the form of the pinnules has no small resemblance. Plate 17. Pig. 1. Very much reduced figure of Didymochlana lunulata, Desv. 2. Fertile pinnae,—nat. size. 3. Fertile pinnule. 4. Young sorus. 5. Old sorus :—more or less magnified. ~W. Titch.(3.ei.cbli'th. 'Vmcmt Brooks,ImpPlate 18. POLYPODIUM (Craspedaria) piloselloides, L. Small tongue-shaped Polypody. Polypodium (Craspedaria) piloselloides; caudex long-creeping, filiform, scarcely thicker than a sparrow’s quill, setaceo-paleaceous; fronds scattered, distant, of two kinds, stipitate, coriaceo-carnose, costate, obtuse, minutely subu- lato-paleaceous; stipes one to one and a half inch long, setaceo-palea- ceous ; sterile fronds two to two and a half inches long, oblong or ovato- oblong; fertile ones lanceolate, two and a half to three inches long; veins anastomosing, with large, oblique, hexagonal, oblong, areoles next the costa, with a free vein soriferous at the apex, marginal areoles smaller; sori large, in two rows, one on each side nearer the costa than the margin, large, pro- minent ; capsules long, stipitate, mixed with long, hastate, stipitate scales, longer than the capsules. Polypodium piloselloides. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1542. Sw. Syn. Pil.p. 25. WiUd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 144. Metten. Polypod. p. 93. Margin aria piloselloides. Presl, Tent. Pteridogr. p. 187. Hook. Gen. Yd. t. 51. Goniophlebium piloselloides. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. Bot. v. 4. p. 56. Craspedaria piloselloides. Fee, Gen. Ml. p. 264. Craspedaria veronicsefolia. Fee, Gen. p. 264 (Jide Mettenius). Lingua cervina minima repens et hirsuta. Plum. Fil. p. 103. t. 118. Hab. Tropical America, frequent on the trunks of trees, among mosses, etc., and on dry rocks in mountain districts frequent. West Indian Islands generally. Andes of Quito, Ecuador, Jameson. Portorico, Schwanecke. Venezuela, Fendler.—Cultivated in the tropical fernery of Kew. This belongs to a small group of Polypodium, which has been distinguished as a genus by Link, under the name of Craspe- daria, chiefly by its habit and dimorphous fronds; but he in- cluded some species of Niphobolus. M. Fee adopts the genus, excluding the Niphoboli, mainly however on account of the diffe- rent venation. The present species is extremely common in perhaps all the West Indian Islands; less abundant, it would appear, on the continent of South America. The exact limits of the species are not accurately defined. It borders very closely on the one hand to the Polyp, aurisetum, Raddi, Fil. Brasil., p. 12. t. 23. f. 1 (which indeed is the P.piloselloides of that author’s Synopsis, p. 46); and on the other to the P. Cayennense, Desv. (Pol. ciliatum, Willd., Craspedaria, Link), from which it chiefly differs in the very narrow fertile fronds; so narrow that the MAY 1st, 1861.sori lap over the margin of the frond and give to it a monili- form character. It is remarkable that no good recent representation has been anywhere given of this common plant, but Plumier’s is more accurate than the greater number of his fern-figures. Plate 18. Caudex and sterile and fertile fronds of Polypodium (Craspedaria) piloselloides, L.,—natural size. Pig. 1. Apex of a sterile frond, showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile frond, showing the position of the sori, and more distinctly the frondal scales and the venation. 3. Capsule. 4. Stipitate scale from among the capsules of the sori:—all more or less magnified.1,9 77! Fitch, deL.etTith.Plate 19. NIPHOBOLUS adnascens, Elf. Close-growing Niphobolus. Niphobolus adnascens; caudex elongate, creeping, branched, as thick as a blackbird’s quill, paleaceous with lanceolate-setaceous scales, rooting below ; fronds of two forms, scattered, distant, coriaceo-carnose, dark-green above, but hoary with a scattered stellated pubescence, beneath paler with more co- - pious and stellated pubscence, very obtuse, or acute, bluntly carinate be- neath, above subcanaliculate at the costa ; stipes one to two inches long ; sterile fronds two to four inches long, spathulate or broad-lanceolate ■, fertile ones six to eight inches long, linear or oblong in both, tapering below into the stipes ; primary veins oblique, connected by transversely slightly arcu- ated ones, forming areoles in which are two to three free veinlets, clavate at their apex; sori copious, compact, rather small, situated between the costa and the margin, sunk in cavities of the fleshy frond, and arranged in trans- versely oblique series of a cinnamon-brown colour, suborbicular, but a little irregular in shape. Polypodium adnascens. Sw. Syn. Fil.p. 25 and 222. t. 2./. 2. Niphobolus adnascens. Kfs. En. Fit. p. 124. Wall. Cat. n. 268. J. 8m. Cat. Gard. Ferns, p. 12. Cyclophorus adnascens. Besv. in Berl. Mag. v. 5.p. 300 ; Lourn. Bot. v. l.p. 20. Polypodium pertusum. Roxb. in Hook. Exot. FI. t. 162. Metten. Fit. Hort. Lips. p. 33. Niphobolus pertusus. Spr. Syst. Veget. v. 4. p. 44. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 201. Epimel. Bot. p. 127, ex cl. syn. Craspedaria pertusa. Link, Hort. Berol. p. 118. Niphobolus carnosus. Bl. Fit. Lav. Lc. p. 50. t. 19. Pr. Epim.p. 126. Polypodium carnosum. Metten. Polypod. p. 124. Niphobolus elongatus. Bl. FI. Lav. lc. p. 52. t. 20. Pr. Epim.p. 126. Niphobolus varius. L. 8m. Hook. Lourn.of Bot. v. 3. p. 396. Polypodium carnosum, var. elongatum. Metten. Polypod. p. 124. Polypodium verrucosum. Wall. Cat. n. 267. Polypodium caudatum. Metten. Polypod. p. 126. Niphobolus caudatus. Kaulf. En. p. 127. Bl. Fit. Lav. Lc. p. 56. t. 22. Pr. Epim. p. 127- Pleopeltis Commersoniana. Willd.; and Niphobolus Chamissoanus, Pr. Tent. Pterid.p. 127 (fide Metten.'). Polypodium vittarioides. Wall. Cat. p. 270. Cyclophorus vittarioides. Pr. Epim. Bot. p. 129. Metten. Polypod. p. 126. Niphobolus vittarioides. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 202. Hab. India: Madras Peninsula, Wight, Heyne; Concan, Law ; Eastern Bengal, Nepal, Assam, Khasya, Wallich, Griffith, Hooker fit. and Thomson; Hima- laya, Kumaon (Strachey and Winterbottom); Silhet, Nepal, Sikkim, Wal- lich, Griffith, Hooker fit. and Thomson, Booth. Malay Archipelago and may 1st, 1861.Islands, Griffith, TFallich, Lady Dalhousie, Cuming, n. 240 and 93. Ceylon, Gardner, n. 1153. China, Vachell, Fortune, 169. Fiji Islands, Milne.— Cultivated in the stove of the Royal Gardens of Kew. A very universally distributed Fern over the continent of India, and adjacent islands, the Malay islands, etc., and well distin- guished by the numerous small sori, deeply sunk in a cavity of the frond, and arranged in transversely oblique series between the costa and the margin. Its long creeping scaly caudices grow close to the bark of trees, among mosses, etc., and cling to the substances on which they grow by copious fibrous radicles, whence Swartz’s original specific name of adnascens. Plate 19. Plants of Niphoholus adnescens, Kaulf., with sterile and fertile fronds,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile frond, showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile frond, showing the arrangement of the sori and the stel- lated tomentum :—magnified. 3. Sorus cut through vertically, showing the cavity in which the capsules are sunk,—more magnified.w. "Vincent Brooks, Imp lYTitch, del. et litn fj 1 «9 j 'll I:| i i 12Plate 20. NIPHOBOLUS angustatus, Spr. Large-fruited Niphobolus. Niphobolus angustatus; caudex long, creeping, branched, radicant, about the thickness of a duck’s quill, clothed with closely imbricating, falcate, subu- lato-setaceous scales, especially in the younger portions; fronds scattered, distant, thick, coriaceo-carnose, from five inches to a span or more long, tapering below into a stout petiole, glabrous above, hoary with dense stellated pubescence beneath, costate, acute or apiculnte; sterile fronds usually the smallest and broadest, and with shorter petioles, broad- or oblong-lanceolate, fertile ones longer and generally narrower in proportion; primary veins patent, slender, distant, parallel, these are connected by slightly curved transverse ones, forming areoles which include several, free or united, and slightly branched, ultimate veinlets ; sori large, subglobose or oval, par- tially sunk in the frond, and forming on each side the costa a chain or single series between the costa and margin, sometimes longitudinally confluent. Niphobolus angustatus. Spr. Sp. PL v. 4. p. 44. Polypodium angustatum. Sw.Syn. Fil.p. 27 and 224. Willd. Sp. PL p. 154. Schk. Fil.p. 187. t. 8 c. Niphopsis angustatus. J. Sm. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 6 Niphobolus spbserocephalus. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 94. Polypodium sphaerocephalum. Wall. Cat. n. 272. Pleopeltis angustatus. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 193 ; Fpimel. Pot. p. 120. Niphobolus macrocarpus. Hook, and Am. Bot. Beech. Voy.p. 74. 1.18. Pleopeltis macrosora. Pr. Epim. Bot. p. 126, Hab. East Indies : “ Tranquebar, Roettler ” (Swartz)-, Assam, Jenldns; Sincapore Wallich, Scliomburgk; Malacca, Griffith, Cuming, n. 372; Penang, Dr. Lorraine; Borneo, Wallace; Labuan, Thomas Lobh. Pacific Islands: Pitcairne’s Island, Cuming, n. 1394, Mathews, n. 13; Coral Islands, Lay and Collie; Tahiti, Barclay. North-east Australia : Brisbane Itiver, F. Mueller.—Cultivated in the fern-stoves of Kevv. The size of the fronds, and the very large sori, oval or subglo- bose, arranged in a single series, on each side of the costa, if taken in conjunction with the venation, when that can be seen, dis- tinguish this fine species of Niphobolus. The genus, which We have hesitated whether to abandon or to retain, has been gene- rally received, and the peculiar stellated tomentum on the fronds may 1st, 1861.may perhaps justify its preservation. The venation, although in general very obscure, is very different in different species of the genus, as is the arrangement of the sori. Plate 20. Sterile and fertile fronds of Niphobolus angustatus, Spr.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile frond, showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile frond, showing sori and the stellated tomentum :—magnified.uPlate 21. CYATIIEA (Notocakpia) six lata, Jlooh. and Grev. Sinuated Cyathea. Cyathea (Notocarpia) sinuata; small (for a Tree-Fern); candex erect, slender, one inch broad, two to four feet high, black, clothed below with descending aerial fibrous roots, above with the ebeneous-black bases of the old stipites; fronds forming a terminal crown of numerous, erecto-patent, more or less decurved, membranaceous, bright-green, simple (undivided) fronds, two to three feet long, one to one a half inch broad, elongato-lanceolate, moderately acuminate, sinuated at the margin, sublobate towards the base, rather shortly stipitate (stipes three to four inches long, very scaly); costa strong, prominent beneath; veins horizontal, in pinnated fascicles ; sori inserted near the base of the lateral veins or veinlets ; involucres globose, at length breaking away in the upper half and leaving a hemispherical cup with numerous pear- shaped capsules, which are seated on a globose, large, elevated receptacle. Cyathea sinuata. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 106. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1 .p. 15. Hab. In woods, in mountains of Ceylon, Dr. Emerson, Mrs. General Walker, G. A. K. Thwaites, Esq. (Singhe Rajah Forest, n. 3052), Gardner. It has often been remarked by lovers of British Botany, that the researches, and consequently the discoveries, were never so numerous as during the publication of Sir James Edward Smith’s ‘ Flora Britannica,’ and his and Sowerby’s ‘ English Botany;’ and we trust that what those works did towards promoting our know- ledge of the plants of Great Britain, the ‘ Species Filicum,’ and the present work, will do by increasing our acquaintance with the Ferns of the whole world. We have, indeed, to a great ex- tent, already experienced this to be the case. These works have afforded the means of studying the genera and species, and have encouraged students and collectors abroad, and they are sure that their contributions of new and rare species will be turned to ac- count for the good of the public, and that they will be duly de- scribed and recorded. We are certain that our friend Mr. Thwaites will have pleasure in knowing that two of the rarest and most beautiful Ferns of Ceylon, which he has taken infinite pains in sending far into the mountain woods of Ceylon to procure and send to us in a living state, have at length reached us in safety and in the most beautiful condition; and that, in less than a fortnight after their arrival, they are drawn and engraved for the JUNE 1st, 1861.present work : these are the Cyathea sinuafa here represented, and the more singular, but much less local llymenostachys Zeylci- nica of Dr. Wallich. The Cyathea is not only peculiar to Ceylon, but is very rare, and we only know of its being gathered by our friends above mentioned. It is, moreover, the only species of the extensive genus which has simple or undivided fronds; and it is perhaps among the smallest, and certainly the most elegant of the tribe. It has quite an arborescent character, but bears about the same proportion to the gigantic species of the same genus, that the pigmy-deer of Ceylon does to the red-deer of our country. The two Ceylonese Ferns now mentioned were packed in a very long, narrow, vertical glazed case, made for the purpose, and com- mitted to the care of Dr. Thomas Thomson, as far as Malta, then to that of Mr. Bury. The two plants reached us in the most perfect state of health and of fructification. The llymenostachys, being of the Ophioylossum family, we are less sanguine of culti- vating with success than we are the Cyathca: we shall soon present a figure of that to our subscribers. Plate 21. Pig. 1. Much reduced figure of Cyathea (Notocarpia) sinuata, Hook, arid Grey. 2. Single fertile frond,—natural size. 3. Portion of a frond, with sori, showing the venation and the position of the sori on the veins,—mag- nified. 5, 6. Sori and involucres in different stages of maturity,—more magnified.22. ^mcent Brooks Imp. WTFitctwdfil.st liba.Plate 22. PTERIS (Litobrochia) palmata, Willd. Palmated Pteris. Pteris (Litobrocliia) palmata; caudex ascending; stipites tufted, ebony-black, setoso-squamose below ; fronds very polymorphous, cordate; young and ste- rile ones obtusely three- to five-lobed; fertile ones thick and fleshy when re- cent, coriaceous when dry, often gemmiparous at the base beneath, palmately three- to five-lobed; lobes variously and deeply divided or pinnatifid, frequently so as to leave a broad disk to the frond; the segments more or less acumi- nated and more or less broad, lowest pair of primary lobes generally with long segments near the base, pointing downwards, sometimes again pinna- tifid ; sinuses rounded; costa and costules ebeneous at the back of the frond; sori continuous, narrow; veins anastomosing, sunk in the substance of the frond and very obscure. Pteris palmata. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 357. Kze. in Limicca, v. 23. p. 322. Litobrochia pedata. Presl, Tent. Pterid. p. 149, including “ P. pedata, L., and P. palmata, Willd.” Doryopteris palmata. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. of Bot. v. 4. p. 163. Klolzsch, in IAnncea, v. 20. p. 342. a. lata; disk of the frond and the segments broad. (Plate 22.) (3. angustiloba; disk and segments narrow, elongated. Pteris varians. Uaddi, Til. Brasil, p. 44. t. 64. Pteris platyloma. Kze. in Linncea, v. 23. p. 322 (fide Mettenius). Pteris collina. Uaddi, l.c. p. 44. t. 64./. 1, 2. Pteris pedata. Sieb. FI. Martin, n. 368 (in Herb, nostr.). Eaton, Til. Tendl. and Wright, p. 204 (according to Fendlers Venezuela specimens, n. 91; and Mettenius also, according to Eaton, refers this to P. palmata). Doryopteris euehlora. Klotzsch in Linncea, v. 20. p. 342 (and in Herb, nostr). Hab. South America: Caraccas, Bredemeyer; Galipan, Moritz; Ocana, elev. 7000 feet, n. 194 and 598, Schlim; Columbia, Otto; Bogota, Holton, Hartweg; Venezuela, Fendler, n. 91; Santa Martha, Purdie; Peru, Province of Cha- capoyas, Mathews; Galapagos, Maclean, Captain Wood, Cuming, n. 107 ; Martinique, Sieber; British Guiana, Rich. Schomburgk; Brazil, Rio, Uaddi., Burchell, Macgilivray, Milne, Gardner, n. 37 (a gigantic specimen) and n. 5930; Pernambuco, M. de Mornay; Rio Grande, Mr. Fox. Island of Tri- nidad, South Atlantic Ocean; some of the specimens more than usually divided, but not otherwise different. East Indies : Dindighul, I)r. Wallicli, n. 874, Wall. Cat. “from Herb. Wight, where it is said to be Pteris Myso- rensis, Heyne,” if there be no mistake respecting this locality, which seems hardly possible, being accompanied by a ticket with the number in Dr. Wallich’s handwriting. Cultivated at Kew. Opinions are divided as to the propriety of keeping the Pteris palmata of Willdenow distinct from the Linnean P. pedata, and JUNE 1st, 1861. iit is not without hesitation that I now change my views, so strongly expressed in favour of the union of the two in my ‘ Species Plantarum.’ It is true that both are very polymorphous plants, yet I think no one can compare our figure here given with the very accurate one of P. pedata at t. xxxiv. of the ' Exotic Ferns,’ which is very characteristic, without looking upon them as distinct. It is true it is an extreme form here represented, having a broader disk and broader segments than is usual, but I have numerous intermediate forms, to the deepest and narrowest lobed varieties referred to, and figured by the authors above quoted. The chief characteristics of P. pedata are the more membrana- ceous, the more deeply-divided segments, with acute sinuses, and the middle (or terminal) primary lobe narrowed into an acute wedge-shaped base. Keeping these points in view, I have not, with perfect specimens before me, found it difficult to separate the two species. The broad- and narrow-lobed forms are not unfrequently seen to arise both from the same root, The pre- sent is a much more widely dispersed Fern than P pedata. The gemmiparous bud, so common on this species, especially when cultivated, has never been noticed on the pedata. Plate 22. Upper and under sides of fertile fronds of Pteris (LUobrochia) palmata, WilLd.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of the stipes. 2. Portion of a fertile frond, showing the venation and the sorus. 2. Involucre, forced back to show the receptacle:—all more or less magnified.90 VO. W.Elixb^d-d- etlith. Vincent Brooks, Imp.Plate 23. PTEEIS (Litobrochia?) leptophylla, Sw. Slender-leaved Pteris. Pteeis (Litobrochia) leptophylla; caudex small, subtuberiform; stipites tufted, slender, stramineous, a span to a foot long, scaleless; fronds 4-5 inches to a span long, pale green, thin, membranaceous, pellucid, deltoid-acuminate, subdentate, bipinnate, tripinnate below ; pinnules linear, acuminate, broader in the sterile plant, and deeply and long-setosely serrate, at the apex only so in the fertile plant, all the pinnae and pinnules more or less decurrent on the winged rachises ; veins free and forked in the narrow pinnules, in the broader ones with only a single and often interrupted series of areoles next the costa (as in Campleria). Pteeis leptophylla. Sw. in Act. Holm. 1317, p. 70. Ag. Pterid. p. 57. Presl, Tent. Pterid. p. 145. Hook. Sp. Fit. v. 2. p. 216. Pteeis spinulosa. Raddi, Syn. Pit. Bras. n. 115. Fil. Bras. p. 47. t. 70 and 70 bis. Cheilanthes spinulosa. Link. Litobeochia leptophylla. Fee, Gen. Fil.p. 135. J. Sm. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 37. Moore and Houlston, in Gard. Mag. of Bot. v. 3. p. 126. Hab. Brazil, abundant about Rio, gathered by various travellers and collectors. South Brazil, Sellow. Cultivated at Kew. A delicate and graceful Fern, peculiar, as far as we at present know, to Brazil. It is one of the many species which throws a great doubt on my mind, of the propriety of multiplying the genera of Ferns on the grounds of venation only. We have here a Fern which the followers of Linnaeus and Swartz, and we may add Brown, would have no difficulty in recognizing as a Pteris: but unfortunately in its venation it partakes of two, if not three, modern genera; much of it has the free venation of true Pteris (.Eupteris), more perhaps of Carnpteria; rarely do the areoles form more than a costal series (constituting Carnpteria), so as to satisfactorily associate with Litobrochia.- nevertheless, Presl places this plant in true Pteris (notwithstanding that he is the author of Carnpteria), while Moore, as well as others, who main- tains the genus Carnpteria “ as a useful group between Pteris and Litobrochiarefers it to the latter genus par preference. This observation is made in no carping spirit, but to show that by this minute multiplication of genera upon no solid foundations, while it perplexes the tyro and increases the difficulty of the JUNE 1st, 1861.study, in no way promotes a natural arrangement. The plant now under consideration, with the venation of Campleria, is own brother in habit and structure to Pieris (Litobrochia) Brasiliensis, Raddi, and ought always to rank next to it: Fee and J. Smith have gone so far as to abandon Camptena. There is indeed a true Pteris (Eupteris) gracilis of Fee (see our Sp. Fil. v. 2. p. 172. t. 128 a.) also from Brazil, so closely resembling this that I doubt if it is even specifically distinct. Plate 23. Fertile plant of Pteris (Litobrochia7) leptopltylla, Sw.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Fertile pinnule,—magnified. 2. Portion of a sorus,—more mag- nified. 3. Sterile pinna,—natural size. 4. Portion of a pinnule, stowing the venation of Campteria,—magnified.Plate 24. HYPODERRIS Beownh, J. Sm. Browns Hypoderris. Gen. Char. Sori dorsal, subglobose, arranged in lines or series within the areoles formed by the secondary veins upon the confluent angles of reticulated veinlets. Involucre inferior, cup-shaped, very thin and mem- branaceous, the margin fimbriated and spreading.—Fern of Trinidad, con- fined to one species. Caudex creeping, very paleaceous with subulate scales, and similar scales clothe the stipites and the costa beneath.—Fronds sti- pitaie, membranaceous, subcordato-hastate, acuminate, costate, pinnatedly veined; primary and secondary veins alternate, nearly parallel, fiexuose; veinlets copiously anastomosing, so that the whole surface is reticulated with angular areoles, some of which have a free clavate veinlet (appendi- culated). Hypoderris Brownii. Hypoderris Brownii. J. 8m. in Hook. Gen. Fit. t. 1. Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 07 5 and 576; Sp.Fil.v. 1.p. 57. J. Sm. Cult. Ferns, p. 51. Hab. West Indies: St. Anne’s Valley, Trinidad, Lockhart; growing on moist rocks in deep shady ravines; since communicated, probably from the same locality, by Dr. Cruger. Cultivated at Kew. A Fern of great rarity, and remarkable in structure, inas- much as, with the fructification evidently allied to Woodsia, it has the habit and venation of that group of Polypodium, to which Phyviatodes and Drynaria belong, and of Aspidium, Presl, among the Aspidium-gvowp. Its only native country yet known is the island of Trinidad, and the only locality there yet re- corded, is that above given. In the present case, as the genus is a very remarkable one, we have given the generic character. There being but one species, no specific character is necessary, for there is no other known Fern with which it can offer any specific comparison. Plate 24. Figs. 1 and 2. Fertile fronds of Hypoderris Browniana, J. Sm., natural size. 3. Portion of a fertile frond, with sori, showing the venation,— magnified. 4. Sorus and involucre,—more magnified. JUNE 1st, 1861.*Plate 25. CYATHEA MEDULLARIS, Sw. Edible Cyathea. Cyathea medullaris; arboreous; caudex erect, stout, twelve to fourteen feet high, eight inches to a foot and more in diameter, dark-brown, almost black, below clothed with a dense mass of aerial descending radicles, above with the remains of former years’ stipites, crowned with a magnificent tuft of erecto-patent fronds, equal in length to the caudex (of which the stipites occupy two to three feet, are very stout, of a deep purplish-black, with a delicate glaucous bloom, strongly muricated, as is the rachis), broad ovate- lanceolate, coriaceous, three feet in diameter in the widest part, tripinnate, full-green, paler beneath; primary pinnae from a broad petiolated base, oblong-lanceolate ; secondary ones lanceolate acuminate; pinnules linear- oblong, subfalcate, obtuse, toothed or lobato-pinnatifid ; sori at the forking of the veins in two rows, nearer the margin than the costale, which has ciliated, paleaceous scales beneath; involucres globose, firm-membranace- ou§, bursting irregularly at the top, leaving a ragged cup with an elevated receptacle. (The fronds when quite young are covered with a very thick and dense mass of long, soft, woolly, paleaceous hairs, which fall away as the frond gets perfectly developed.) Cyathea medullaris. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 140 and 366. Schk. Ml. p. 128. t. 133 {good). FFilld. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 494. Hoolc. Sp. Ml. v. 1. p. 27. A. Cunn. Prodr. FI. Nov. Zel. in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. v. 2. p. 368. A. Rich. FI. N. Zeal. p. 77. Hook.fil. FI. New Zeal. v. 2. p. 7. Bracken. Ml. Bot. United States Expl. Exp. p. 281. Polypodium medullare. Ford. Prodr. p. 82. PI. Esc. p. 84. SpHjEROPTERis medullaris. Bernh. in Schrad. Journ. Bot. 1800, v. 1. p. 22. t. 1./. 1. Cyathea affinis. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 141 (not of Schkuhr). Polypodium affine. Font. Prodr. p. 83. Cyathea extensa. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 139 and 364. Schk. Ml.p. 127. t. 132 a-c (good, as representing the barren state and ciliated scales of the rachis beneath). Alsophila extensa. Hook, and Am. in Bot. of Beechey’s Voy.p. 76. Cyathea Mertensiana. Bongard, MS. in Herb. Imp. Acad. Petersb. and in Herb. Nostr. Hab. New Zealand ; Northern and Middle Islands, as far south as Akaroa, Forster, Raoul, Hooker fil. etc.; Norfolk Island, Forster (Endlicher). Pacific Islands, Forster; Otaheite, Duperrey; Pitcairn’s Island, Cuming, n. 1793, Mathews, n. 7; New Guinea, Barclay; Bonin, Dr. Mertens; Coral Islands, Beechey ; island of Aneiteum, Raoul; and Kermadee Islands, Milne and Macgillivray; “ caudex arborescent, one foot in diameter.” Grand and striking as are the Tree-Ferns in general, the pre- JULY 1st, 1861.sent species is the one which has perhaps attained the greatest size in a state of cultivation. Our principal plant was presented to the Royal Gardens by his Royal Highness the Prince Consort; in eight years it has doubled its size, and at this time (1860), with its tub (much too small for it), it stands twenty feet from the ground to the summit of its noble crown of leaves. But this is small, compared to the size of one of which we possess a drawing, by favour of Dr. Sinclair, from a native specimen grow- ing within reach of the spray of a cascade in New Zealand, which is, we believe, estimated at eighty feet. Dr. Hooker mentions the stems or caudices measuring from six to eight feet in cir- cumference, and with fronds eighteen feet long. Mr. Bracken- ridge describes the trunk fifteen to thirty feet long. No doubt, it varies much according to locality. The young undeveloped stipites and fronds are densely clothed with very long, crisped, glossy, silky, paleaceous, dark-brown fibres, forming a felt all over, which gradually falls off as the fronds are perfected: then the rich purple-black of the muricated stipes, with a glaucous coating or bloom, like that of a plum, is apparent. The pin- nules vary in being more or less toothed or pinnatifid/ some- times nearly entire, the margins often reflexed. The sterile pin- nules are broader than the fertile ones. This is one of several New Zealand Ferns, of which the pith-like core or centre, in a glutinous semifluid state, and presenting a medullary substance (whence the specific name), used to be extensively eaten by the Aborigines; but now the more civilized condition of the Natives has taught them to prefer more substantial and nourishing food. Plate 25. Pig. 1. Fertile plant of Cyathea rnedullaris, S\v.,—a much reduced figure. 2. Portion of a secondary pinna of ditto,—natural size. 3. Pinnule, with sori,—magnified. 4, 5, 6. Sori in different states of maturity,— more magnified."Vf Fitch, del e t litKPlate 26. ACROSTICHUM (GYMNOPTERIS) NICOTIAN/EFQLTUM, Sw. Tobacco-leaved Acrostichum. Acrostichum nicotianafolium; caudex long, stout, creeping; stipites stout, distant, one and a half to two feet long, scaly below; fronds dimorphous, one to two feet long, submembranaceous, pinnated with three to seven or ten petiolated pinnae, terminal one the largest; sterile frond, pinnae four to eight inches long, elliptical-ovate, rather suddenly acuminated, sinuato- dentate at the margin, penniveined ; primary veins subarcuate, connected by transverse subarcuate lesser veins, their areoles with anastomosing ulti- mate veinlets, which are appendiculated ; fertile fronds smaller than the sterile; pinnae oblong-lanceolate, subacuminate. Acrostichum nicotianaefolium. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 13. t. 199. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 118. Gymnopteris nicotianaefolia. Pr. Tent. Plerid.p. 244. Acrostichum acuminatum. Willd. Sp. Pl. p. 116. Gymnopteris acuminata. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 244. Gymnopteris latifolia. Pr. 1. c. ? {Fee). Lingua cervina scandens citriifoliis major. Plum. Til. p. 100. t. 115. Hab. Tropical America. West Indies: Martinique, Plumier; Jamaica, Swartz, Wilson, Purdie; Cuba, C. Wright, n. 788, Linden, 2117. British Guiana, Schomburgk. Near Para, Brazil, Spruce, n. 28. Cultivated at Kew. A very fine bold-growing species, frequent in marshy ground, according to the testimony of Plumier and of Spruce. The pinnae vary in size, both of the sterile and fertile fronds (the latter are always the smaller of the two), and they vary in their relative length and breadth: hence two species have been con- stituted, which are hardly worth recording even as varieties. It is an exceedingly well marked species. M. Pee has lauded the figure of Plumier as characteristic of his Gymnopteris acuminata ; his own figure, G. nicotianaefolia, can in no way be distin- guished from Plumier’s plant, which is the original authority for our Acrostichum nicotianeefolimn. It is remarkable that Swartz should have overlooked Plumier’s figure, and placed it among his “ species incertse.” Plate 26. Fig. 1, 2, 3. Portion of a caudex and stipes, and upper portion of a sterile and of a fertile frond,—natural size. 4. Portion of a fertile pinna, with the fructification partially removed to show the venation,—magnified. JULY 1st, 1861.it .t Bi'ooks.lTrrp W-Fitch, del etlith BmceriiPlate 27. TBICHOMANES cbispum, L. Crisped Bristle-Fern. Trichomanes crispum; caudex elongated, creeping, branched, black-setose at the apex; stipites scattered, or often aggregated at the apex of a caudex or branch, one to four or five inches long, subtriquetrous, black-brown with spreading hairs; fronds three or four inches to a foot and more long, mem- branaceous, compactly cellular with minute areoles, more or less villous with simple or branched hairs (as is the rachis), oblong-lanceolate, acumi- nate, sometimes a little contracted at the base, deeply pinnatifid in the upper portion, below pinnated, often decurrently so; segments and pinnae more or less compact, horizontal, oblong, obtuse, or sublanceolate, costate, sinuato-dentate, snbcrispate; veins rather distant, one- to three-forked ; in- volucres infundibuliform, sunk in the substance of the frond, the mouth some- times a little exserted, at other times situated in the sinus formed by two projecting teeth, mostly at the apex of the segments; columella often very long and much exserted. Trichomanes crispum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1560. Sw. FI. Ind. Occ. v. 3. p. 1731. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 5. p. 504. Hedw. Ml. cum ic. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 12. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 18. J. TV. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 251. Trichomanes pilosum. Raddi,Fil. Bras. t. 19. f. 1. Epimel. Bot. p. 15. J.E. Sturm, in Mart. Ic. PI. Crypt. Bras.p. 105. t. 68. Mart. FI. Hymenoph. p. 252. Pan den Bosch, Hymenoph. p. 19 (T. laxum, Kl. in Linnaa, v. 18. p. 536, according to Kunze). Trichomanes fastigiata. Seib. Syn. Fil. n. 144. Pr. Hymenoph. p. 115; Epimel. Bot. p. 14. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 18. Trichomanes accedens. Pr. Epimel. Bot. p. 14. Van den Bosch, l.c.p. 18. J. E. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 253; in Schfc. Fil. Suppl. p. 158. t. 68 ; and in PL Crypt. Poepp. v. 9. p. 104. J. E. Sturm, in Mart. Fil. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 255. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 19. Trichomanes Sellowianum. Presl, Hymenoph. p. 15 and 37 ; Epimel. Bot. p. 15 and 37 (andTrichora. maximum of Pohl, andKze. in Linnaa, v. 21. p. 240, according to J. E. Sturm.). J. E. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 253. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 20. Trichomanes cristatum. Klfs. Enum. Fil. p. 265. Pr. Hymenoph. p. 15 ; Epimel. Bot.p. 14 (Tr. pellucens, Kl. in Linnaa, v. 18. p. 530, quoad Plant. Hostm. n. 600,fide J. E. Sturm). J. E. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 254 (Trichomanes laxum, Kl. in Linnaa, v. 18. p. 530, according to J. E. Sturm). Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 19. Trichomanes Haenkeanum. Pr. Hymenoph. p. 15a«(736. t. 3 A; Epimel. Bot. v. 1. p. 69 (T. crispum, Pr. Reliq. Hank. v. 1. p. 69, Jide Pr.). J. E. Sturm, in Mart. Hymenoph. p. 255. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 19. Trichomanes Mertensii. Pr. Hymenoph. p. 15 and 36. Epimel. Bot. p. 15. JULY 1st, 1861.J. E. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 257. Fan den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 19. Teichomanes eriophorum. Pr. (sub Ragatelo) Epimel. Bot. p. 18. t. 9. J. E. Sturm, in Mart. FI. Bras. Hymenoph. p. 257. Fan dm Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 20. Teichomanes Plumula. Pr. Hymenoph. p. 15 and 36 (Van den Bosch refers to this under his T. pilosum, Mart. Ic. PI. Crypt. Bras. t. 68, right-hand figure). Trichomanes plumosum. Kunze, in Linncea, v. 9.p. 104. Polypodium crispum, calyciferum. Plum. Fit. p. 67. t. 86. Hab. Tropical America. West Indies: Martinique, Plumier, Sieber, n. 144 (T. fastigiatum, Sieber); Jamaica, Swartz, Purdie, March; Guadeloupe, C. Parker; St. Vincent, Guilding; Cuba, C. Wright, n. 900. Columbia, Schlim, n. 601 and 654, Purdie, Seemann, Fendler (Venezula), n. 26, sterile, pinnules elliptical-oblong, scarcely crisped; andn. 389, two feet long, sti- pites and rachises very slender, fronds very membranaceous and delicate, much attenuated at the base, Birschell, Punch, n. 650 : Brazil, Sellote, Gardner, n. 207 (both quoted as T. Selloioiamim, Kze.); Tarapota, Spruce (Tr. plumosum, Kze.), and Para, n. 2, and n. 209 (this is T. crispum, according to Presl, Epimel. p. 14, and T. pilosum, J. E. Sturm, in Mart., and». 1908, which is T. cristatum, Kaulf., according to Presl, and T. pellucens, n. 208, of Gardner), (T. pilosum, Raddi, according to J. E. Sturm); Barra, on the Amazon, densely clothed with ferruginous hairs, and n. 1212, nearly free from hairs. British Guiana, Schomburgk, n. 442 (this is also T. cristatum, Klfs., according to Presl, n. 277, “ Trichomanes crispum, L., j3 rufum, is T. Mar- tensii, Pr. Hymenoph. p. 15, and T. pilosum, Mart. Ic. Crypt. Bras. p. 105. t. 68); C. S. Parker; Essequibo, Appinn. 181. French Guiana, Le Prieur (T. plumosum, Kze., DC.); Surinam, Hostmami, n. 599 (T. Plumula, Pr.). Peru, Lechler, n. 2548 (T. crispum, L. Metten., T. pellucens, Fan den Bosch), Pceppig (“ T. pellucens, Kze. Fil. v. 1. p. 158. t. 68,” and other speci- mens of Poeppig, marked, by Kunze, T. plumosum, Kze., and Pr. Hyme- noph. t. 2 A). Tropical Africa, Brass Biver, and Prince’s Island, Barter, in Baikie’s Niger Expedition, n. 1817 and 1818; banks of the Nun Eiver, Gustav Mann. Cultivated at Kew. A most beautiful species, long supposed to be peculiar to tropical America; but recently detected in tropical Western Africa. I know few species of the difficult and variable genus Trichomanes which is more readily recognized than this; and I cannot but express my surprise that Dr. Greville’s excellent figure of it, in the ‘ leones Filicum,’ should be so misunderstood, as to induce Presl first, and others following him, to divide it from T. crispum, and constitute a species, under the name of T. accedens, distinct from T. crispum, of Linnaeus and of Plumier (the original authority). It is not to lie wondered at, that those who separate species upon such slight grounds, should go fur- ther, and give rise to the above catalogue of synonyms, which, for the greater part at least, possessing as I do authentic spe- cimens, I can only regard as one and the same species, un-* worthy of notice even as well-marked varieties. I think, could the able botanists whose names stand in the above list of syn- onyms, inspect the numerous suites of specimens which it is my privilege to possess, they would come to very different conclusions respecting the limits of species. I am not, it is true, acquainted with Tr. Hcenheanum of Presl; but as that author’s description is not at variance with T. cris- pmi, and as he first considered it to be identical with that Fern, we are perhaps not far wrong in bringing it here. T. eriophorum is surely, both from the figure and description, a more hairy state of T. crispum, and seems to have been so con- sidered by its discover, Sir Robert Schomburgk, whose speci- mens of British Guiana, distributed under n. 442, have been considered, by a very able closet-botanist, to include three dis- tinct species ? Plate 27. Pig. 1 and 2. Pertile plants of Trichomanes crispum,—natural size. 3. Pertile pinna,—magnified. 4. Sorus,—more highly magnified.Plate 28. HELMINTHOSTACHYS Zeylanica, Hook. Ceylon Helminthostachys. Gen. Char. Helminthostachys, Kawlf. Capsules subglobose, clustered, opening downwards by a longitudinal fissure into two nearly equal valves: clusters pedicellate, crested, collected into an elongate, pedunculated, cau- diform, subdistichous terminal spike. Spores pellucid, small, globose.— Native of India. Caudex a thickened, fleshy, creeping rhizome, throwing down fleshy fibres; stipes simple, elongated, herbaceous; frond ternato- verticillate, binate, ternate, or subquinate, or pinnate ; pinnae lanceolate, sub- serrate, lateral ones decurrently winged and coadunate, terminal one gene- rally free. Helminthostachys Zeylanica. Helminthostachys Zeylanica. Hook. Gen. Ml. t. 47. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 59. Hook 2nd Cent, of Ferns, t. 95. Helminthostachys dulcis. Kaulf. En. Ml. p. 28. t. 1./. 1. (spike only). Bl. En. Fil. Jav.p. 258. Wall. Cat. n. 54. Hook, and Grev. En. Fil. Bot. Miscell. v. 3. p. 220. Botrychium Zeylanicum. Sw. Syu. Ed. p. 172. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. C5. Osmunda Zeylanica. Linn. Sp. PI. 1519. Ophioglossum laciniatum. Rumph. Herb. Arnboyn. v. 6. p. 153. t. 68./. B. Helminthostachys integrifolia. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 50. Botryopteris Mexicana. Presl, Reliq. Hcenk. v. 1. p. 76. t. 12./. 1. Helminthostachys crenata. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 60. Hab. Malay Archipelago and Amboyna, Rumphius; Luzon, Cuming, n. 39 ; Tavoy and Bengal, Wallich; Mergui, Griffith; Java, Blume, Thomas Lobb ; Borneo, Thomas Lobb; Ceylon (Linnaeus), Gardner, Thwaites; Cochin, Mrs. General Walker, Johnstone; New Caledonia, La Billardiere; Guahan, Marianne Islands, Heenke. Cultivated at Kew. In this case again, where the genus is limited to a solitary species, we give the generic character, which includes that of the species. This is a Fern, or, as sometimes called, a Pseudo-Fern, allied to our well-known Ophioglossum vulyatum, but as it has a compound spike and compound fronds, it is properly considered a distinct and a new genus by Kaulfuss. It is peculiar to eastern and southern India, and the Malay Archipelago and Islands, and has been successfully introduced to Kew by the kindness of our JULY 1st, 1861.excellent friend Mr. Thwaites. It grows, as that gentleman in- forms us, in watery places, such as produce the Ceratopteris tha- lictroides, Brong., and we shall find it probably as difficult to cultivate, for a series of years, as we do the Ophioglossum, Botry- chium, etc., which, it is possible, judging from the fleshiness of their roots, may be all in some sense parasitic. It must be a great love of species-making that induced the late Dr. Presl to describe the three specimens distributed in the col- lections of Mr. Cuming from Luzon, as three distinct species ! One of these he afterwards acknowledged to be the same as his Botryopsis Mexicana of ‘ Reliquiae Haenkeanae ■’ and on finding that it was not really a Mexican plant, and not distinct as a genus from Helminthostachys, he had called it II. crenata. Plate 28. Fertile plant of Helminthostachys Zeylanica, Kaulf.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a frond, to show the venation. 2. Portion of a spike, with clusters of capsules. 3. Single cluster of do.,—all magnified.Plate 29. BOTBYCHIUM Yieginianum, Sw. Iiemlock-leaved Moonwort. Botrychium Virginianum ■* stipes three inches to a foot and a half long; sterile frond shorter than the stipes, deltoid, subternate, tripinnate (lower primary pinnse often so distant from the pair next above as to appear like two lateral fronds); ultimate pinnae varying much in size, oblong-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid; the segments lanceolate, irregularly more or less serrated or incised; fertile frond long-pedunculate, arising from the base of the com- pressed rachis, or from various distances above the base; raceme compound, subtripinnate; ultimate segments short, capsuliferous. Americauum; peduncle of the fertile frond from near the base of the sterile one. Botbychium Virginianum. Sw. in Schrad. Journ. 1800. Syn. Fil.p. 171. Sc/i/c. Ml. p. 157. t. 156. 8m. in Rees’ Cycl. Suppl. Ledeb. FI. Ross. v. 5. p. 506. Svensk Rot. t. 665. Osmunda Virginiana. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1579. Botrychium Virginicum. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 64. Ilook. and Grev. Mi. Ml. Rot. Misc. v. 3. p. 233. Presl, Tent. Suppl. p. 46. Fries, Sum. Veg. p. 83. A. Gray, Man. Bot. United States Illustr. p. 602. Schlecht. in Linncea, v. 5. p. 621. Botrypus Virginicus. Mich. FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 274. Botrychium gracile (small var.). Pursh, Ft. Am. Sept. p. 656. Botrychium brachystachys. Kze. in Linncea, v. 18.p. 305. Botrychium cicutarium. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 171. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 65. Hook and Grev. En. Fit. in Bot. Misc. v. 3. p. 223. Presl, Tent. Suppl. p. 46. Osmunda cicutaria. Lam. Enc. Bot. v. 4. p. 650. Osmunda Asphodeli radice. Plum. Fil.p. 136. t. 159. Indicum; peduncle of the fertile frond from near the middle of the sterile frond. Botrychium languinosum. Wall. Cat.p. 48. Hook, and Grev. Ie. Ml. t. 79 {small, and the peduncle inserted at the base of the sterile frond). Presl, Tent. Suppl. 46. Kze. in Linncea, p. 246. Hab. North America : Canada (Sir J. E. Smith), and throughout the United States, to the extreme south, Texas, etc., Mexico, Dr. Coulter, n. 1716, W. Bates (sterile frond much resmbling that of B. daucifolium, Wall., and Hook, and Grev., but the peduncle inserted as in the American form). South America, Funck andSchlim, n. 971; New Granada, Purdie; Ecuador, Hartweg, n. 1484; Quito, Jameson; St. Domingo, Plumier, Scandinavia {Herb. Nostri), and said to be found in “Eussia, Austria, and Stvria.”—In- dicum; Sheopore and Nepal, Wallich; and throughout Northern India and the Neilgfherries, Wight, n. 31, Hooker fit. and Thomson, Major Madden (Simla, 5-8000 feet elev.). Khasya, Griffith. Ceylon, Gardner, n. 1181. Tsus-Sima, in the Gulf of Korea, Wilford, n. 848. Japan?, Thunlerg. * The original Linnaean name is Virginianum, not Virginicum, as generally written. august 1st, 1861.The present species of Botnjchium was long supposed to be peculiar to North America, from Canada (according to Willdenow and Smith, though I have never myself seen Canadian specimens) to Carolina: but unquestionably the same plant appears, gene- rally in a larger form, in Mexico, and in the northern parts of South America and Ecuador. It inhabits also Northern Eu- rope, but, from the few specimens I have seen from thence, in a very reduced form. The Botrychium lanuyinosum of Wallich, from India, is remarkable in almost every instance in having its fertile peduncle arising, not from the base of the sterile frond, but from near the middle of its rachis. But my first authentic specimens received from Dr. Wallich, still preserved in my her- barium, and figured in the ‘leones Filicum’ (tab. 79), have the peduncle exactly as in the American plant, and is noways diffe- rent from it. There are, indeed, other allied species, and de- scribed ones (B. daucifolium, Wall., B. matricarioides, Willd., B. australe, Br., B. ternalum, Sw., B. lunarioides, Sw., etc.), in which the peduncle originates from the stipes considerably below the sterile frond, and even from near the base of the stipes. But indeed all the species of the genus require a careful revision, find the notion, still too prevalent, must be abandoned, tbat Ferns of widely separated localities are specifically different: and then the seventeen species enumerated by Presl, in his ‘ Supplementum Tentaminis Pteridographim,’ will require to be reduced. The present Fern is undoubtedly very variable in the size of the frond, and in being more or less compound. Our figure well represents the usual size and normal state of the plant. Plate 29. Fertile plant of Botrychium Virginianum, Sw.,—natural size. Pig. 1. Ultimate pinnule of a sterile frond. 2. Portion of a fertile raceme. 3. Capsule all more or less magnified.*TmcflntBrooksjS) WFitefccLeL etTitb-Plate 30. POLYPODIUM (Phymatodes) attenuatem, Br. Attenuated Polypody. Polypodium (Phymatodes) attenuatum; caudex long, creeping, subulato-squa- mose towards the apex; fronds scattered, a span to a. foot and a half long, firm-coriaceous, glossy, linear-loriform, scarcely acuminated, acute, the base attenuated into a short stipes, destitute of scales, articulated on the caudex ; costa very stout, prominent beneath ; veins subuniformly reticulated, forming long narrow areoles next the costa with no free veins; sori copious, large, elliptical, prominent, in single series between the costa and the margin, and originating both from the surface of the areoles and of the veins. Polypodium attenuatum. Br. Prodr. Nov. IIoll.p. 146 (not Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 409, nor Gen. Ml. t. 71 B, nor of All. Cunn., nor of Richard, which are Dictymia lanceolate, J. Sm. of New Zealand). Sieb. Syn. Fil. n. 93, and FI. Mixt. n. 237. Dictyopteris attenuata. Pr. Tent. Pterid.p. 194. Moore. Dictymia attenuata. J. Sm., in Comp. Bot. Mag.v. 72,p. 16. Polypodium Brownianum. Spr. (fide Presl) and Drynaria Browniana, Fee. Polypodium Brownii. “ Wicks.tr.” Metten. Polypod. p. 85, but evidently, judg- ing from references, including J. Smith’s Dictymia lanceolata. IIab. New Holland : Port Jackson, Brown, Sieber, n. 93, Clowes, Fraser; Hast- ings River, Br. Be,elder; Cunningham’s Gap, Victoria, F. Mueller. Island of Viti-Levu, Eiji group, Milne, Captain Denham’s Voyage of the ‘ Herald.’ Cultivated at Kew. A very distinct and well-marked species, though I was led formerly to publish another plant, the Dictymia lanceolata, J. Sm., under that name, from having so received what I believed to be authentic specimens, from Allan Cunningham, and from the too brief character given by Mr. Brown. Allan Cunningham does not appear to have found the true P. attenuatum, in Aus- tralia, to which country, however, it is not peculiar, for I have received specimens from the Fiji Islands. On the other hand, Dictymia lanceolata, J. Sm. in Hook. Fil. FI. N. Zeal. v. 2. p. 43 (which may be called Polypodium (Phymatodes) Cunninghami, by those who do not sanction Dictymia of J. Sm., or Dictyopteris, Pr.), is not confined to New Zealand. I possess specimens from the island of Mallecolla, one of the New Hebrides, gathered by Mr. C. Moore, of Sydney (n. 50). It is remarkable that Dr. Mettenius, in his work on “ Polypodium,” takes no notice of this latter plant, except as he confounds it with the P. attenuatum, Br. (his P. Brownii), for he describes the fronds as sometimes “ spathulato- AUGUST 1st, 1861.lanceolate,” which is characteristic of Cunningham’s plant. He quotes my figure in Ic. PI. t. 409, and in Gen. Fil., but he makes no allusion to its being a New Zealand species. I trust our pre- sent figure will clear up all difficulties respecting Mr. Brown’s plant. Plate 30. Fertile specimens of Polypodium (Phymatodes) attenuatum, Br.,— natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile frond, magnified, showing the venation: another smaller portion, more magnified, showing the receptacle of the sorus.Plate 31. LOXSOMA Cunninghami, Br. MSS. Mr. Cunninghams Loxsoma. Gen. Char. Loxsoma, Br. Sori marginal, in the sinus of the teeth of the fronds, pointing downwards, terminating a vein. Involucres suburceolate, coriaceous, of the texture of the frond, the mouth truncated, entire. Re- ceptacle columnar, elongated, much exserted beyond the involucre, and covered, for its whole length, with clavate, shortly stipitate capsules, mixed with jointed hairs and furnished with a broad, oblique, incom- plete ring, opening on one (the out-) side vertically. Spares triangular, with a depressed, triangular mark.—An elegant Fern, peculiar to New Zealand. Caudex long, creeping, scaly. Stipites elongated, scattered. Fronds coriaceous, decompound, glaucous beneath, the segments lanceolate, dentato-pinnalifid, veins simple or forked; sori on the extremity of a vein. Loxsoma Cunninghami. Loxsoma Cunninghami. Br. MSS. A. Cunningham, in Bot. of N. Zeal, in Hoolc. Comp, to Bot. Mag. v. 2. p. 366. t. 31, 32. Hook. Gen. Fit. t. 15. Sp. Fit. v. 1. p. 86. Hook. Ft. N. Zeal. v. 2.p. 18. Davallia dealbata. A. Cum. MSS. Trtchomanes ccenopteroides. Han. MSS. Hab. New Zealand; Northern Island, in several localities, All. Cunningham, Colenso, Sinclair, J. D. Hooker, Haney, etc. Cultivated at Kew; living specimens having been received from Dr. Sinclair. This very remarkable and rare genus (only hitherto detected in the Northern Island of New Zealand), was first discovered and described by Mr. Allan Cunningham. It may be looked on as a Fern with the habit of a Davallia and the fructification of Trichomanes. We are satisfied to place it in Dicksoniece, along with Davallia, Hymenophylhm, etc. Presl seems to have taken no notice of it. Dr. Van den Bosch, who is deeply versed in Hymenophyllacece, in his most recent work * Eerste Bijdrage tot de Kennis der Hymenophyllacece,’ constitutes an Order “ Bry- opteridesf which has three suborders,—(1) Hymenophyllacece, (2) Diplophyllaceee, (3) Loxsomacece; the latter formed of the single genus Loxsoma. We have lately had the good fortune to re- AUGUST 1ST, 1861.ceive from Dr. Sinclair living plants at the Royal Gardens of Kew, and arc but too happy to offer a figure in the present work. Plate 31. Plant, with sterile and fertile fronds, of Loxsoma Cunninghami, Br., —natural size. Fig. 1. Sorus and involucre. 2. Sorus with the involucre laid open. 3. Capsule and jointed filaments from the sorus. 4. Front view of a capsule :—all more or less magnified."W Fitch. dcL. etlith. "Vincenr, Brooks, ImpPlate 32. WOODSIA (Hymenocystis) polystichoides, Eat. Polystichum-like Woodsia. Var. (3. Veitciiii. Woodsia (Hymenocystis) polystichoides; densely cmspitose, a span rarely to a foot high; caudex scarcely any; stipites short, pale-castaneons, glossy, scaly; fronds subcoriacco-membranaceous, opaque, lanceolate, pinnate; pinnse patent, numerous, approximate, sessile, six to seven lines long, lan- ceolate, obtuse, cuneato-truncate at the base, auriculate above, more or less villose, or sparsely subulato-paleaceous, the margins entire or sinuato-pinna- tifid; costa indistinct; veins immersed, simple or forked, free, soriferous at the apex within the margin; involucre of four to live long-ciliated, im- bricated, membranaceous scales, inserted beneath the sorus, at first orbicular, enclosing several capsules, racbis testaceous, glossy, partially and decidu- ously scaly. a. nudiascula; fronds subglabrous; pinnae nearly entire at the margin. Woodsia (Hymenocystis) polystichoides. Eaton, Ferns of Wright's Herb, of Ringgold and Rodgers, TJ. S. Expl. Exped. in Proc. of Acad, of Arts and Sc. 1859, p. 110. Hook, in Second Cent, of Ferns, t. 2. ft. Veitchii; fronds very villous on both sides; pinnae nearly entire at the margin. (Plate 32. Pig. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7.) Woodsia Yeitchii. Hance, MS. in Herb, noslr. y. sinuata; pinnae broader, more obtuse, lobato-pinnatifid. (Plate 32. Pig. 3.) • Hub. Japan. Var. a. Ilakodadi, Ringgold and Rogers, Wilford, n. 1021. Var. ft. Ilakodadi, Veitcli. Var. y. Hakodadi and Manchouria, Wilford, n. 1093. Ta-lien-kwan, Yellow Sea, Birnie. We had scarcely figured the normal state of this plant, de- rived from specimens sent to me by Mr. Eaton, in our ‘ Second Century of Ferns/ above quoted, than we received further spe- cimens from our collector, Mr. Wilford; and, more recently, a very villous variety which Mr. Veitch had presented to our bota- nical friend Mr. Hance, at Whimpoa, taken from a case of living plants that were dispatched to Messrs. Veitch’s nursery at Chelsea; so that we may now consider the plant as introduced to our collections, and thus entitled to a place in a work of “ Garden Ferns.” A portion of these here figured were sent to us by Mr. Hance as a new species of Woodsia, which in his MSS. AUGUST 1st, 1861.he had called Woodsia Veitchii. As this name cannot be adopted for the species, we gladly employ it for the variety of this very beautiful and interesting species of the genus Woodsia. Plate 32. Fig. 1. Woodsia pohjstichoides, var. [i Veitcldi, Hook.,—natu- ral size. 2. Portion with fertile pinnae. 4. Portion of a pinna. 5, 6. Sori. 7. Portion of a scale of the involucre:—magnified. 3. Pinna of var. y,—natural size. "W. fitch.,del fitllth. ’ViDcenLBi 'U-tvS,iTKp.Plate 33. OPHIOGLOSSUM (§ Ophioderma) pendulum, L. Great Pendulous Adder s-tongue. Ophioglossum (§ Ophioderma)pendulum; epiphytal; root consisting of stout, coarse, fleshy fibres; fronds carnoso-membranaceous, one to four or five feet long, one to two or rarely three inches in diameter, ribbon-shaped, atte- nuated at the base, simple and subspathulate or once or twice dichotomous, ecostate, the segments very long, linear, subacute; veins internal, anasto- mosing, with long narrow subhexangular areoles; peduncles solitary, one to three inches long, simple or forked; spikes one or two, linear, three or four inches to a span long, pendulous. Ophioglossum pendulum. Linn. Sp. Plant, p. 1518. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 170. Willd. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 60. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 19. Grev.and Hook. En. Fil. in Hook. Bot. Mise. v. 3. p. 219. Bl. En. Fil. Jav. p. 260 (§ Ophioderma). Ophioderma pendulum. Presl, Suppl. Tent. P ter id. p. 55. Hab. Chiefly in tropical regions of the Old World ; the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans; found by all botanists and collectors. Mauritius, Ceylon, East Australia, Brisbane River, All. Cunningham, and five miles from Port Jackson, C. Moore (in Herb. Nostr.). Cultivated in Kew Gardens from living plants sent from Sydney by Sir Daniel Cooper, growing among decaying fronds of Acroslichum (Platycerium) grande. Our living plants of this interesting species of Adder’s-tongue were sent to us, with other rare Ferns, from Australia by our obliging friend Sir Daniel Cooper. His remarks on this plant, in his letter, are very interesting : “ The Ophioglossum pendulum is a beautiful species. If you can manage to insert a piece into the under part of Acrostichum grande,- when that Fern has be- come well established, it will hang from it like a large green beard, and appear to great advantage. I tried to bring a mag- nificent specimen of the Acrostichum, from which 0. pendulum hung down like a mass of beautiful green ribbons, six and seven feet long, two feet wide, and eight or nine inches thick, and with seedpods six inches long attached to the various leaves; the Acroslichum however died, and the leaves (or fronds) of 0. pen- dulum withered away; but new ones are pushing through the surface of the dead Acrostichum.” To the present plant it is however impossible to do justice on a Plate of this small size, and all we can do is to represent at our fig. 1 a specimen on a very reduced scale, and at fig. 2 a young fertile plant, which SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1801.generally has the fronds simple and subspathulate. Some of our largest spikes of capsules, independent of the peduncle, are nearly a foot long. Of true Ophioglossum—that is, of the group to which our Euro- pean 0. vulgaium and 0. Lusitanicum belong—Presl enumerates twenty-five species. Almost innumerable specimens in our her- barium, from various parts of the world, induce Dr. Hooker and myself to believe that all are forms of one and the same species. In our present plant, and in the still more remarkable Ophioglos- sumpalmatum, L., of South America (well distinguished by the sti- pitate palmated frond, and the aggregated spikes arising from the stipes), the specific distinctions are clear enough ; but then End- licher, adopting Blume’s sectional name, makes of it a genus, Ophioderma, in which he is followed by Presl, and the latter again makes a new genus of 0. palmatum (Cheiroglossa). Presl gives Quito, in South America, as a locality for 0. pendulum ; but I am confident the Quitonian plant is the 0. palmatum, whence I have numerous specimens. But although the former is exclusively a native of the Old World, I have proof in my herbarium that 0. palmatum is not exclusively confined to the New, for I possess specimens from M. Bouton and from the Paris Herbarium, gathered in the island of Bourbon, where how- ever it is stated to be very rare. Plate 33. Pig. 1. Tuft of Opldoglomm pendulum, L.,—on a very reduced scale. 2. Young fertile plant,—natural size. 3. Portion of a frond, to show the venation. 4. Section from a spike of capsules :—magnified.■ t 1 W.Rtch,cLel etlith Ymcx^iLDrookBjrnpPlate 34. SCHIZiEA ELEGANS ; a. LATIFOLIA. Beautiful Schizcea; broad-leaved var. ScHiZiEA elegans; caudex moderately stout, creeping, slightly setose; stipites numerous, approximate, ten inches to two feet long; fronds eight to ten inches long, broad-cuneate and undivided or broad-flabelliform, coriaceous, membranaceous, glossy, more or less dichotomously divided; primary divi- sions attenuated into a compressed one-nerved (or costate) petiole, ultimate divisions or segments three to four or more inches long, oblong-cuneate, from three-quarters of an inch to an inch or more broad, their somewhat truncate apices cut into several, subulate, long, costate segments, each terminated by a compound falcate spike of fructification, or the whole frond is cut into narrow-linear costate segments bearing one or few spikes; spike- lets at first secund, afterwards spreading; capsules mixed with long jointed hairs, much exceeding them iti length; the venation consists of nearly parallel dichotomous veins in the broad segments, a single central vein or rib in the narrow ones. u.. laiifolia; segments broad, with copious dichotomous veins. (Plate 34.) Schiz.ea elegans. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 151. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 5. p. 88. Splitgerb. En. Ml. Surinam. 1840, p. 433. Schiz/ea cristata. TFilld. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 88 (Forster’s plant from the Society Islands, which is intermediate between a and fi). Lopiiidium elegans. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 77. Acrostichum elegans. Valil, Synth, v. i.p. 104. t. 50. (i. dichotoma; fronds repeatedly flabellately dichotomous, with narrow coslate segments. Schiz^a dichotoma. Sw. Syn. Fit. p. 150. TFilld. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 85. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fit. t. 17. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 75. Brown, Prodr. FI. Nov. Roll. p. 102 (fronds sometimes slightly muricated). Bipidium dichotomum. Bernh. in Schrad. Journ. 1800, v. 2. p. 127. t. 2./. 3. Acrostichum dichotomum. Linn. Sp. PL p. 1524. Font. Prodr. n. 415. Hab. a. la.tifolia. Trinidad, Van Rohr, Lockhart, Criiger; Jamaica and other West Indian Islands. Tropical America, especially Guiana, Brazil, Co- lumbia, Mexico ; generally in mountain regions. Pacific Islands : Society, Coral, Fiji Islands, New Hebrides, and Queen Charlotte’s group, Forster, Beechey, Mathews, C. Moore, Milne, etc., and evidently, by innumerable gradations, passing into the S. dichotoma, Sw., and Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fib 1.17.—/3. dichotoma, Malay Islands, China, Mauritius, Bourbon, Mada- gascar, and the Pacific Islands, where it grows in company with a. laiifolia, exhibiting various intermediate forms, the broad segments of the latter splitting not only at the apex but in the disk into narrow ones. Australia (common); New Zealand. Bare in South America. Caracas, Birschel; Venezuela, Fendler, 485 ; Cuba, C. Wright, n. 926. There is no good authority for either form of this being found on the continent of India.— Cultivated at Kevv, where plants were received from Dr. Criiger, of Trinidad. The genus Sehiztea oi Swartz and Smith lias been by Presl separated into three genera:—1. Actinostachys, Wallich, three SEPTEMBER IsT, 1861.species; Schizcea itself, nine species; and Lophidium, to which he refers, five species, viz. 8. spectabilis, Mart., 8. pacificans, Mart., S. Flabellum, Mart. (Lophidium latifolium, ? Rich.), our present 8. elegans, Sw. (Acrostichum, Vahl), to which Dr. J. G Sturm has added, in the FI. Brasiliensis of Von Martins, 8. attenuata, Beyr. MS., and S. Fluminensis, Miers. That our S. elegans is the true plant of Vahl, there can, I think, be no ques- tion. Vahl’s figure is very accurate, and our gai’den specimen here figured is derived from Trinidad. It will be worth con- sidering how far the other species of Lophidium deserve to be distinguished from this. 8. spectabilis, Mart., figured in Mart. FI. Brasil, t. 15 (not “14”) is only known from one sterile frond; that frond is flabellato-reniform and quite simple, that is, not broken into dichotomous segments. 8. pacificans, Mart. Ic. PI. Crypt. Bras. p. 116. t. 56. f. 1, is fertile, and otherwise ex- actly corresponds with 8. spectabilis, but it is bipartite, and one of the two lobes is again divided, while the other exhibits a disposition to become so, and the frond would thus be twice dichotomous. 8. Flabellum is cuneato-flabellate and bipartite, really in no essential particular differing from the two preceding, and is not an uncommon form in Guiana. 8. attenuata, J. G. Sturm, is unfortunately not figured, but the description and the remark, “ Unicum tauturn hujus speciei vidi specimen, quod tamen a 8. elegante diversum existimo,” lead me to the conclu- sion that it has no good characters to distinguish it. And lastly, we come to the 8. Fluminensis of Miers, in Sturm, 1. c. t. 15 (not “ 14 ”): “ Species inter omnes Sc/dzceas florae nostrae gra- cillima et cum alia non confundenda.” The figure exhibits a starveling plant of what may be a very undeveloped condition of 8. elegans, and of which 1 ought to possess good specimens from Mr. Spruce, who is the only authority mentioned for its discovery. Thus much for the genus or group of Lophidium. I have quoted the Pacific Islands as affording the plant now under con- sideration. Some of my Aneiteum specimens are decidedly this plant, gathered by M'Gillivray and Milne and C. Moore, and each set exhibits samples in all gradations, gradually merging into 8. dichotoma. I possess, indeed, true dichotoma, which is rare in the New World, from Caracas (Birschel) and from C. Wright, gathered in Cuba (n. 926), but neither from the New World have I seen this to pass into 8. elegans, nor from India and Aus- tralia, as among my Pacific Island specimens. The size of the spikes of capsules varies exceedingly on different specimens. Plate 34. Fertile plant of Scldzaa elegans, Sw.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Com- pound spike of fructification, seen from the back. 2. Single spikelet, seen from the front. 3. Capsule. 4. One of the hairs from the rachis :—all more or less magnified.Plate 35. POLYPODIUM (§ Drynaria) Willdenowii, Bory. Willdenows Polypody. Polypodium (§ Drynaria) Willdenotoii; caudex long, very stout, repent, densely clothed with lanceolato-subulate, delicate, membranaceous scales, fringed with long, silky, golden hairs ; fronds of two kinds, forming a coronal tuft; sterile ones four to six inches and more long, sessile, ovate, firm, strongly costate, scarioso-membranaceous, subeoriaceous, more or less deeply pin- natifid, cordate at the base, strongly and prominently veined; fertile fronds long-stipitate (stipes and rachis beneath dark-purple), one and a half to two feet long, herbaceous, oblong-ovate, deeply almost to the rachis pinnatifid; segments a span or more long, linear-oblong, entire or serrated only at the moderately acute apex, lowest ones distant and decurrent; veins in the sterile fronds having the primary ones very distinct and pinnate, secondary and tertiary ones with no free veinlets; in the fertile fronds the primary veins are indistinctly pinnate, the rest anastomosing, with here and there free veinlets in the areoles ; sori prominent, tawny, in two rows, situated close to the costa. Polypodium Willdenowii. Bory, in Annal. des Sc. Nat. ser. 1. v. 5. p. 468. Atlas, t. 13. Bl. FI. Jav. t. 66. Metten. Polypod. p. 120. t. 3./. 48, 49 (venation only). Polypodium propinquum. Wall, in Herb. 1823. Gat. n. 293. Brest, Tent. Pteridogr. p. 198. Drynaria propinqua. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. Bot. v. 4. p. 61. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 13. Polypodium dimorphum. Zoll. (Jide Metten.). Hab. East Indies : Mauritius, Bory, Wallich, Bouton; Nepal, Simla, and ap- parently common in Eastern Bengal, Khasya, Assam to Bootan and Sikkim, and along the Himalaya range, at elevations of 5-6000 feet to North-west India, Wallicli, Criffith, Edgworth, Hook, fit, and Thomson, Strachey and Winterbottom (elev. 7000 feet). Java, Blume, Zollinger.—Cultivated in the stoves at Kew. We have here another species of that fine group of Poly- podium to which the name of Drynaria has been given, having two distinct fronds; the sterile almost resembling a withered oak-leaf, of which we have offered an example at our Plate 5 of this work, Polypodium (§ Drynaria) diversfolimi. Dr. Wal- lich named the present species P. propinquum in his Herbarium and in his ‘ Catalogue/ probably from its affinity with P. querci- folium, L. Prom that species it is at once distinguished by having SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1861.only two lines of sori, contiguous to and parallel with the costa. From P. diversfolium, which has similarly arranged sori, it is as readily recognized by its pinnatifid, not pinnated, fertile fronds. Bory de St. Vincent’s excellent memoir on his genus, or rather, as he calls it subgenus, of Polypodium, “ Drynaria," in the first series of the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’ has been two much overlooked by Pteridologists, especially of this country, perhaps from the work being little known and difficult of access. Plate 35. Pig. 1. Tuft of fertile fronds of Polypodium (Drynaria) Willde- nowii, on a very reduced scale. 2. Portion of a caudex, with stipes and sterile frond,—natural size. 3. Segment of a frond, with sori,—natural size. 4. Sori and venation. 5. Scale from the caudix,—magnified.Plate 36. ANEMIA (§ Euanemia) Mandioccana, Bad. Mandiocca Anemia. Anemia (§ Euanemia) Mandioccana; caudex a short erect or oblique rhizome,from which arises a cluster of stipites four to six inches long, clothed with spread- ing fulvous hairs; fronds a span to a foot long, oblong or ovato-oblong, her- baceo-membranaceous, dark-green, pilosulous, acuminate, multijugate, pin- nated, pinnatifid only at the very apex, bearing the pair of fertile panicles at its base; pinnules one to three inches long, spreading, oblong, obtuse or subacuminate, crenato-serrate, superior base truncated and approximate with the rachis, inferior margin excised, ecostate; veins flabellate, very close, dichotomous ; fertile panicles oblong, acuminate, on stipites about as long as themselves. Anemia Mandioccana. Raddi, Syn. Fil.p. 23. Fil. Brasil, t. 9./. 1. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pteridogr. p. 90 (not Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 90, which is A. Breuteliana, Pr.). J. G. Sturm in Mart. FI. Bras. p. 198. Anemia abscissa. Schrad. Goett. Gel. Ans. v. 184. p. 864. Anemia collina. Kaulf. Bn. Fil. p. 52? Moore, Lid. Fil.p. 64. "Var. radicans; rachis prolonged at the apex and rooting. Anemia radicans. Raddi, Syn. Fil.p. 22. Fil. Bras.p. 70. 1.10. Presl,Suppl. Tent. Pteridogr. p. 85. Hab. Brazil; abundant in the Mandiocca district, near Eio Janeiro (whence the author’s specific name), Raddi, Sellow, Gardner, Martins, Tweedie, etc. etc. Cultivated at Kew. Like too many other genera of Ferns, the present one, Anemia, requires a careful revision, and, if possible, an attentive study of the species in their native localities; and probably the thirty-eight species of true Anemia, and the seven of the group Ancmidictyum (genus of J. Sm.), and assuredly the forty-eight Brazilian species described by J. G. Sturm, will have to be considerably reduced. It is certain that our plant here figured is the true A. Mandioccana of Raddi, for I possess authentic specimens from the author; and probably Moore is correct in referring Raddi’s A. radicans to the same species, notwithstanding that all our specimens of the latter have narrower fronds, and are radicant or proliferous at the apex. It is true these two plants have no distinct costa to the pinnules, and hence are distinguishable from A. Langs- dorjjiana, Pr., and from my Anemia Mandioccana (not of Pr.), from Trinidad (now referred to A. Breuteliana, Pr.); yet there is what may be called a slender costal vein, excentric it is true, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1861.from which the close-placed dichotomous veins radiate or diverge. All the species of this genus are exceedingly beautiful, as may be seen by our figures of A. cottina, A. villosa, and A. fulva, in our 'Filices Exoticae,’ t. 20 and 65, and eminently deserving of cultivation in our fern-stoves. Plate 36. Sterile and fertile fronds of the Anemia (§ Euanemia) Mandioc- cana, Eaddi,—natural size. Fig. 1. Segment of a fertile panicle,—magnified. 2. Single capsule,—more highly magnified.37. ^\\v Vincent BroofejmpPlate 37. TRICHOMANES Javanicum, Bl. Javanese Bristle-Fern. Trichomanes Javanicum; caudex short, erect, at length woody, sending down numerous, long, very wiry roots, and from above a fascicle of numerous, erect, rigid, almost black, deciduously setose stipites, one to four inches or more long ; fronds oblong, acuminate, four inches to a span and more high, rigid-membranaceous, black-green, pinnated ; pinnae numerous, half an inch to nearly an inch long, oblong-rhomboidal, obtuse, obliquely cuneate and subpetiolate at the base, superior base more or less truncated, the margins serrated, or more or less deeply pinnatifid, especially at the su- perior margin, and in the superior and most fructiferous pimife; often the inferior serratures terminate in a long bristle (“car. B. serraturis setaceis,” Bl., mother words, a segment is formed by a vein destitute of parenchyme) ; involucres marginal, subinfundibuliform, scarcely winged, the mouth spread- ing ; columella often four to six times as long as the involucre, clavate at the extremity, very fragile; venation strong and forked. Trichomanes Javanicum. Bl. Bn. Ml. Jav. p. 224. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Ml. t. 224 (a young specimen, with the upper pinna less divided and less fructi- ferous than the older state of the plant). Hook. Sp. Ml. v. 1. p. 130. Brack. Ml. V. St. Exp. Exped.p. 261. Van den Bosch, Hymenoph. p. 7. Trichomanes rigidum. Wall. Cat. n. 161 (not Sioartz). Trichomanes setigerum. Wall. Cat. n. 158. Trichomanes filamentosum. Wall. Cat. n. 1668. Trichomanes alatum. Bory in Duperrey's Voy.p. 282. t. 38./. 2 (not Swartz). Trichomanes rhomboideum. J. Sm. Bn. Ml. Philipp, in Hook. Bot. Journ. v. 3. p. 417 (name only). Trichomanes curvatum. J. Sm. Bn. Ml. Philipp, in Hook. Bot. Journ. v. 3. l.c. Trichomanes asplenioides. Pr. Hymen, p. 37 (according to Ms reference to Cuming, n. 184). Kze. in Schkh. Ml. Suppl.p. 218. t. 89. Trichomanes fuscum ? Bl. Bn. Ml. Jav. p. 225 (Van den Bosch refers this to a group of Cephalomanes “ with scandent rhizomes and scattered fronds if that be correct, it is probably quite a distinct species, and more allied to Tr. auriculatum (Tr. dissectum, J. Sm.), which has a “ scandent radicant caudex,” not however noticed by Blume in his Tr. fuscum : and the species is acknowledged to be unknown to Van den Bosch). Trichomanes oblongifolium. Pr. Bpimel. Bot. p. 19. t. 10 (the name changed atp. 258 to Tr. Javanicum, Bl.) Trichomanes Zollingeri ? Van den Bosch, Hymenoph. p. 8. • Trichomanes Boryanum. Kze. in Schkh. Ml. Suppl. p. 237. t. 97. Trichomanes atrovirens. Van den Bosch, Hymenoph. p. 9. Cephalomanes Javanicum. Pr. Bpimel. Bot.p. 258 (in addend, etcorriy.). Van den Bosch, Synopsis Hymenoph. p. 10. Cephalomanes rhomboideum. Van den Bosch, Synopsis Hymenoph. p. 10. Cephalomanes atrovirens. Pr. Hymenoph. n. 18. t. 5. OCTOBER 1st, 1861.Cephalomanes Boryanum. Van den Bosch, Synopsis Hymenoph. p. il. Cephalomanes Singaporianum. Van den Bosch, Synopsis Rymenoph. p. 11. Cephalomanes Madagascariense ? Van den Bosch, Synopsis Hymenoph. p. 11. IIab. Malay Peninsula and tropical islands in the West Pacific, probably uni- versally ; abundant in Java (Blume and others) and the Philippine Islands. Singapore, Wallich, n. 161, Ghappidong, n. 158, and n. 1668 (without lo- cality, in my Herb.; not that number of Rail. Cat.); Penang, Lady Dal- housie, Sir PC. Norris; S. Comarines, Cuminy, n. 184, and Luzon, n. 169 ; Malacca and Mergui, Griffith, Parish, n. 83; Chittagong, Hooker fit. and Thomson; Labuan and Sarawak, Wallace, Lobb, Motley, Barber; Fiji and Samoan Islands, New Hebrides, etc., Harvey, Brackenridge, Seemann, C. Moore, Milne, Macgillivray; Madagascar? Boivin.—Cultivated in the Fern-stoves of Kew, from plants received from Mr. Sim, of Foot’s Cray. I quite agree with Brackenridge in his observation under this plant, namely, that “ it is an extremely well-marked species, of peculiar habit, and of frequent occurrence ” (in the tropical Pacific islands). Indeed, making a moderate allowance for what must be ceded to Perns in general for certain degrees of varia- tion, easily comprehended by the aid of a large series of speci- mens, I hardly know one species of Pern, certainly none among the genus Trichomanes, so easily recognized as the present. But the above synonyms exhibit a great difference of opinion among other botanists, and those botanists who have made Ferns their special study, and whose opinions are consequently deserving of respect and consideration. The only ones of which I can reason- ably express any doubt are the Trichomanes Zollingeri and Cepha- lomanes Madagascariense of Van den Bosch, for I have never seen authentic samples; but, the former Kunze does not consider distinct from Tr. Javanicum; and of the latter its author says, “ habitu et statura convenit cum Tr. Zollingeri, et curvato, soro- rum forma cum C. rhomboideo.” The country, indeed, Mada- gascar, is very remote from all the localities yet recorded for Tr. Javanicum. Much stress is laid by Van den Bosch on the nature of the cellules, and the base of the pinnae is described as cordate. It is therefore possibly a distinct species * Presl has created some confusion by his fondness for genus- making, in constituting of Mr. Cuming’s specimens, n 169, from Luzon, a new genus, under the name of Cephalomanes, and has described and figured a large globose head to the columella, such * While in the act of sending this to the press, I receive the number of the ‘Nederlandsch Kruidkundig Archief,’ 1861, which contains a Supplement to the Synopsis Hymenophyllacearum, by Dr. Van den Bosch, with two additional species of Cephalomanes, viz. C. Australicum, var. a, fi, from the Isle of Pines, Cuming, n. 8 (but Cuming was never there); and C. Wilkesii, Brackenridge’s plant from the Fiji Islands. My numerous specimens from Fiji are unquestionably Tr. Javanicum, Bl.as I have never seen in any of my numerous specimens, as C. atrovirens, “ unica ut usque nota species,” retaining Tricho- manes Javanicum in its old genus. Six years later he published a Cephalomanes oblongifolium in Epimel. Botanicse, p. 19. t. 10, equally from Cuming’s specimens, n. 169; yet in the Appendix to the same work, he refers it to Trichomanes Javanicum. Plate 37. Tuft of fronds of Trichomanes Javanicum, Bl.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Fertile pinna,—magnified. 2. Sorus,—more magnified./38. "W Fitch, del. et litK. "Vincent, Brodksjrnp.Plate 38. ASPLENIUM (§ Euasplenium) alternans, Wall. Alternate-lobed Splcenwort. Asplenium (§ Euasplenium) alternnns, Wall.; caudex short, copiously rooting, paleaceous with scales, as are often the very short stipes and base of the costa beneath; fronds csespitose, about a span long, chartaeeous, very opaque, pale rusty-green beneath, glabrous, lanceolate, scarcely acuminate, attenuated below, deeply and regularly pinnatifid throughout, lobes ovate- or triangular-oblong, with broad sinuses, obtuse, quite entire but subsinu- ated; veins subflabellato-dichotomous, all free; sori copious on all the lobes, in two rows, linear, erecto-patent, involucres entire. Asplenium alternans. Wall. Cat. n. 221. Rook. Sp. Fit. v. Z.p. 92. Asplenium Dalhousise. Hook. Ic. PI. t. 105. Metten. Asplen.p. 147. Hab. East India, Dr. TFMich, who remarks, “Patria dubia, Nepalia? an Rio Janeiro ?” It is, however, I believe, in India, confined to North-west Hima- laya, and is found at elevations of not less than 6000 feet, in stony woods: Lady Dalhousie, Strachey and TFinterbottom (Kamoun), Edgworth, Col. Bates (Simla), Dr. Thos. Thomson and (Chumbra Hills), Jacquemont, n. 59, 60, 61, and 62 {Herb. Nostr. from Herb. Paris), Dr. Fleming, Hugel, Hoff- meister. Abyssinia, Schimper, n. 288 {Herb. Nostr. from Herb. Paris).— Cultivated at Kew, where it was received from Mr. Sim’s extensive Fern Nursery, Foot’s Cray, Kent. This is a rare Fern ; one of very few species of true Asplenium., which have regularly pinnatifid fronds, and it is remarkable for its great general resemblance to Asplenium (§ Hemidictyuin) Ceterach of Linnaeus, and of us in Sp. Fil. v. 3. p. 278, and in Brit. Ferns, pi. 36 : so great indeed, that but for the entire ab- sence of the tawny scales which so densely clothe the under side of the last-mentioned species, it might, at first sight, easily pass for that plant. FTere, however, on a close investigation, it will be found that the veins are all free and never anastomosing, and the involucres are sufficiently conspicuous. Except in North- western India and Abyssinia it appears to be unknown : in those countries it is found in dry, stony woods, such as our own Cete- rach often affects. Plate 38. Tuft of Asplenium (§ Euasplenium) alternans, Wall.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Fertile segment,—magnified. Fig. 2. Portion of the same, showing the sori,—more magnified. OCTOBEll 1st, 1861.39 "W pitch.,del. et lith. Vincent Brooks, Imp.Plate 39. CHEILANTHES multifida, Sw. Many-hr anched Cheilanthes. Cheilanthes multifida; caudex short, thick, slightly creeping, clothed with black subulate scales; roots tufted, fibrous; stipites sparse, four to six inches long, plane and margined above on the anterior side, below a little scaly at the base, and as well as the rachises stout, rigid, deep ebony-black, glossy; fronds glabrous, four inches to a span or foot and more long, del- toid-ovate, acute, when young often glanduloso-punctate beneath, tri-, below quadri-partite, coriaceous; primary pinnae supposite, broad-ovate, subdeltoid, petiolate; pinnules or segments oblong, pinnatifid; lobes subrotund, con- vex, each bearing two to four, subrotund, flattish, appressed, pale-brown, submembranaceous, distinct involucres. Cheilanthes multifida. Sw. Syn. Fil.pp. 129,134. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 459. Bl. Enum. Ml. p. 137. Schlecht. Adumbr. p. 40./. 29. Pr. Tent. Pterid. Metten. Ml. Hort. Lips. p. 52. Cheilanth. p. 89. t. 3. /. 20, 21. Hook. Sp. Ml. v. 2. p. 90. t. 100 B. Pappe and Raws. Syn. Fil. Afr. Austr.p. 33. Cheilanthes Capensis. Eckl. in Tin. It. n. 168 (Herb. Nostr.). Allosorus multifidus. Bernli. Adiantum multifidum and Lonchitis Caffrorum. Sw. in Schrad. Journ. IIab. South Africa, Fcklon and Zeyher, Villette, etc. ; Macalisberg, Sanderson; Albany, Harvey. East-tropical Africa, Moramballa Hill (elev. 2500 feet), on the Zambesi, Dr. Kirk, in Dr. Livingstone’s Zambesi Exped. (very large). St. Helena, Bennett in Herb. Nostr., Roxburgh in Herb. Banks. Lofty mountains, Blume in Herb. Nostr.—Cultivated in the temperate Fern-house of Kew. If the sterile pinnae and pinnules be alone inspected of this species, its affinity with the Indian Cheilanthes Mysurensis is con- siderable ; but the very different outline of the much more com- pound fronds of the latter will serve to distinguish them. Blume’s specimens from Java and those from St. Helena are identical with our numerous ones from South Africa. The Zambesi plant gathered by Dr. Kirk has fronds measuring fourteen and sixteen inches long, but it is not otherwise different from that of the extremity. It is indeed remarkable how many of the Cape spe- cies extend to East-tropical Africa. Plate 39. Fertile plant of Cheilanthes multifida, Sw.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Pinnule, with sori,—magnified. 2. Small portion of the same, with sori,—more magnified. OCTOBER 1ST, 1861.WtcRMetliih Yinrent Brooks, It t'Plate 40. LOMARIA L’Herminieei, Bory. L'Herminiers Lomaria. Lomaria L’Hermitderi; caudex short, moderately thick, ascending, paleaceous with ovate, brown, deciduous scales, sending down copious wiry roots from below, and bearing tufted brownish stipites at the apex, which are three or four inches to a span long; fronds of two kinds, coriaceous, oblong-ovate; sterile ones a foot and more long, four inches broad, very deeply nearly to the rachis pinnatifid, the sinuses very acute; segments oblong, subfalcate, obtuse, entire, often opposite, one to three pairs of the basal ones forming so many semicircular, decurrent, dwarf lobes; veins oblique, forked, vein- lets clavate at the apex; fertile fronds smaller, pinnated, with distant, linear, generally alternate pinnae. Lomaria L’Herminieri. Bory in Litt. 1838, according to Schkuhr, Ml. Suppl. p. 173. t. 73. Hook. Sp. Ml. v. 3. p. 9. Blechnum L’Herminieri. Metten. Ml. Hort. Lips. p. 64. t. 4./. 13, 14 (fruc- tification only). Hab. Tropical America; first detected in Guadeloupe by L’Herminier, n. 99 ter, and n. 2? Caracas, Linden, n. 193. Tovar, Moritz, n. 383. Santa Martha, Purdie.—Cultivated in the stoves at Kew. Kunze’s figure well represents the specimens of our plant from the above-mentioned localities. It belongs to a group of Lomaria having the sterile fronds deeply pinnatifid, of which twenty-three kinds are enumerated in our third volume of * Spe- cies Filicum,’ but of many of which we have had occasion to express our doubts about the soundness of the species. The character of the present one is made to depend mainly on the sudden contraction of the basal segments of the sterile frond, so as to exhibit a stipes winged as it were with lobes in its upper half; but as Kunze acknowledges these lobes to be sometimes reduced to one, the species then is not easily distinguished from L. lanceolata, Spr.; and that again very nearly approaches some forms of L. attenuata, Willd. The latter, however, and L. ptero- ' pus, Kze., have a stout, creeping, horizontal caudex, by which they are best recognized. Plate 40. Sterile and fertile fronds of Lomaria L’Herminieri, Bory,—natu- ral size. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile segment, showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile pinna,—magnified. OCTOBER 1st, 1861.Vu cent Brocfo, I toipPlate 41. POLYPODIUM (§ Goniophlebium) verrucosum, Wall. Wart-leaved Polypodium. Polypodium (§ Goniophlebium) verrucosum; caudex long, stout, creeping, very scaly, stipites one and a half foot or more long, distant, terete; fronds two to three feet long, oblong, acuminate, firm-membranaceous, pinnate; pinnae numerous, but distant, six to nine inches long, an inch to an inch and a half broad, oblong, costate, articulated upon the rachis, suddenly and shortly acuminated, entire, or serrated chiefly at the apex, nearly sessile, the base obliquely and obtusely cuneate; sori copious, in two compact lines nearer the costa than the margin, sunk in a very deep cavity or sac, which cavities form prominent warts or tubercles on the upper side of the pinnae; primary veins horizontally patent, nearly straight, approximate: these are united by veins which form the letter V inverted (A); areoles terminating in a free clavate veinlet, lowest areole next the costa the largest, and bear- ing a free soriferous veinlet, arising from the inferior angle. Polypodium verrucosum. Wall. Cat. n. 29G. Metten. Polypod. p. 81. Margin aria verrucosa. Hook. Gen. Pit. t. 10 B. Goniophlebium verrucosum. J. Sm. Cat. of Cult. Perns, p. 4. Hab. Penang and Singapore, Wallich, 1829. Island of Amboyna, Be Vriese and Teijsmann, 1859-60, n. 54. I also introduce with some doubt n. 51, 52, and 73 of I)e Vriese and Teijsmann, from Ceram and Java; and Cuming, n. 227, from Luzon.—Imported into Europe by — Rucker, Esq., and cultivated at Kew. For a long time I had seen no specimens I could decidedly refer to this species of Polypodium, save those of Dr. Wallich, and, very recently, from Dr. de Vriese and J. E. Teijsmann, from Amboina. Mr. Cuming’s n. 291, from the Philippine Islands, I suspect is a young state of this plant; the specimens are very conspicuously pubescenti-villous: some of the fronds so young that they are strap-shaped, a foot and more long, and quite un- divided. With some degree of doubt I bring to this Cuming’s n. 227 (Luzon), De Vriese and Teijsmann, n. 51 and 52, from Java, and 73, from Ceram; the warts are much less prominent. These warts, when perfect, have a depressed disk at the apex, looking like an operculum ; and in some very old specimens, when the sori have fallen away, there is a circular opening left on the pinna. It is a very handsome, and I believe little-known species, with fructifications nearly if not quite as remarkable as those of the NOVEMBER 1ST, 1861.otherwise very different Polypodium, (Drynaria) nigrescens of Blume, figured by us in the ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ t. 22. Plate 41. Fig. 1. Fertile plant of Polypodium (Goniophlebium) verrucosum, Wall.,—on a very reduced scale. 2. Fertile pinna, seen from above and beneath, —natural size. 3. Portion of a pinna, with sori. 4. Vertical section of the cavity or receptacle of the sorus. 5 and 6. Abortive capsules, found among the perfect ones. 7. Single capsule —more or less magnified.aPlate 42. SCHIZiEA rupestris, Br. Bock Schizcea. Schiz/EA rupestris ; caudex slender, subfiliform, repent; fronds loosely or com- pactly tufted, undivided, three to five inches long, linear, plane, costate, entire, scarcely denticulate; sterile ones obtuse, fertile ones tapering up- wards, filiformly attenuated at the base into a slender stipes; fructiferous spike pinnate, of from six to eight or ten pairs of pinnae, which are spreading or secund, linear, laciniate at the margin ; capsules compact, in two rows. SchiZjEA rupestris. Brown, Prodr. FI. Nov. Holt. p. 162. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fit. t. 48. Pr. Tent. Pterid. Suppl. p. 74. Hab. Australia: New South Wales; about Port Jackson, Brown; above Glen- more Distillery, Port Jackson, C. Moore; under damp rocks in the Blue Mountains, Fraser, Allan Cunningham ; Swan River, Drummond, n. 225.— Cultivated at Kew from plants imported by Mr. Sim, of Foot’s Cray. In our ninth number, at Plate 84, we gave a figure of the beautiful Schizcea elegans* * Our present species of this in- teresting genus, if not equal to that in beauty of form, is far more rare: being hitherto only known as an inhabitant of Aus- tralia ; but since it is now detected at New South Wales, on the east coast, and at Swan River on the west, it is probable that it will be found occupying a good part of the South Australian continent. We wish we had the opportunity of studying other species of Australia and of the southern hemisphere, from living plants. The characters hitherto given of them are far from sa- tisfactory. Plate 42. Sterile and fertile fronds of Schizcea rupestris, Br.,—■nat. size. Fig. 1. Apex of a sterile frond,—magnified. 2. Portion of the same, showing the venation,—more magnified. 3. Compound fructifying spike. 4. Single spike with capsules. 5. Capsule with spores :—all more or less magnified. * Since the publication of the remarks on that species, I find myself in pos- session of original specimens of S; fiuminensis of Mr. Miers, and Mr. Spruce of the same supposed species, and am more than ever satisfied that they are merely starvelings of S. elegans: the foliaceous portion of the fronds being reduced to the smallest size, in some quite obsolete. NOVEMBER 1st, 1861. Wr'iid\,'lcletliO-L Vincent Brooks, 1 rrrpPlate 43. WOODSIA (§ Pekrinia) obtusa, Hoolc. Obtuse Woodsia. Woodsia (§ Perrinia) obtusa; frond broad-lanceolate, glabrous, or minutely glanduloso-pilose, bipinnate; pinnae remote, subopposite, slightly petiolate, deltoideo-ovate, obtusely attenuated, deeply pinnatifid, the lower ones again pinnate; segments or pinnules oval-oblong, dentate or inciso-lobate; sori solitary on each tooth or lobule near the sinus ; involucres glabrous, very thin and fragile, soon breaking down into spreading laeiniated lobes ; stipes and base of rachis partially chaffy. Woodsia obtusa. Hook. Gen. et Sp. Fit. v. 1. p. 63. Asa Gray, Man. of Bot. Illustr. p. 595. 1.12, 4, and 5. Physematium obtusum. Hook. FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 259. Aspidium obtusum. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 254. Schk. Fit. t. 43 (figure bad). Pursh, FI. Am. v. 2. p. 262. Poly podium obtusum. Sic. Syn. Fil.pp. 39 and 420. Schk. Fit. p. 18. t. 21. Woodsia Perriniana. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fit. v. 1. t. 68. Physematium Perrinianum. Kze. Anal. Pterid. p. 43. Alsophila Perrinina. Spreng. Hab. United States of America ; Pennsylvania to Virginia, rocky banks and cliffs, Pursh, Torrey, Asa Gray, etc.; and south as far as New Mexico, gathered by Mr. C. Wright, in 1851-2, n. 2119 and 2120. We have splendid specimens from Kentucky, Dr. Short (18 inches high, including the stipes). West side of the ltocky Mountains, Douglas, Drummond, near the sources of the Columbia. We have recently received fine specimens, gathered by Dr. Lyall, of the Oregon Boundary Commission, in British North-west America, north lat. 49°, n. 140. California, Douglas.—This has been for many years in cultivation in the temperate fern-house at Kew. Our herbarium contains copious specimens of Woodsia, from the Andes of South America, some of which seem nearly allied to the North American W. obtusa: but they require careful study and comparison before the specific distinctions can be identified. The genus itself, as we have considered it, has three forms of in- volucre, of which we have ventured to constitute so many groups or subgenera :—1. Physematium, with the involucre at first glo- bose, and probably entire, afterwards bursting at the top, with an irregular contracted opening, and persistent (this is the genus Physematium, Klfs., and Hymenocystis, C. A. Meyer). 2. Per- rinia, involucre subhemispherical, from an early stage opening at the top, and soon breaking down into spreading, irregular, NOVEMBER 1ST, 1861.jagged, deciduous lobes or segments, to which section our pre- sent plant belongs; and 3. Woodsia (vera), Br., involucres mi- nute, covered and concealed by the capsules, the long hairs of the margin only projecting beyond the sorus. To this belong our two British species, IV. hyperborea and Ilvensis. But so difficult is the exact structure of this minute and very fragile organ to be seen, that some able modern botanists still place the species in question in Polypodium. Plate 43. Fertile plants of Woodsia (Perrinia) obtusa, Hook.,—nat. size. Fig. 1 and 2. Pinnules, with sori,—magnified. 3. Involucres, spread, most of the capsules removed, showing the receptacle,—more magnified.U- 'WFitcl'i, drl el .1 ilF "Vincent Brooks,IrapPlate 44. XIPHOPTEBIS SERRULATA, Klfs. Serrated Xiphopteris. Xiphopteris serrulata; caudex a slender, scaly, more or less ascending and rooting rhizome; fronds small, subhispid, tufted, on short stipites, two to four or six inches long, more or less curved or flexuose, linear, attenuated below, deeply pinnatilid, the segments subovate or dentiform; fertile ones bearing the sori on the changed, caudate, and generally more or less entire, usually falcate extremity, the very apex sometimes sterile and pinnatifido- serrate; veins solitary in each lobe, soriferous in the fertile portion, sori soon confluent. Xiphoptekis serrulata. Klfs. En. Til. p. 85. Fee, Gen. Fil. t. 10 B. Gkammitis serrulata. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 22. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5.p. 141. Schk. Fil. p. 9. t. 7. Hook. Exot. Fil. t. 78. Raddi, Fil. Bras. p. 11. t. 22./. 2. Bojer, Hurt. Maurit. p. 415. Pr. Tent. Pterid.p. 208. Polypodium serrulatum. Melt. FU.Hort. Lips.p. 30; Polyp, p. 32. Asplenium serrulatum. Sw. Fil. Ind. Occ.p. 1607. Micropteris. Desv. in Mem. Soc. Linn. v. 6. p. 216. Xiphopteris myosuroides. Klfs. En. Fil. p. 85. Grammitis myosuroides. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 22. Schk. Fil. p. 9. t. 7. Presl, Tent. Pterid.p. 208 (not of Raddi, Fil. Bras,p. 12. t. 22./. 3). Polypodium myosuroides. Sw. Ft. Ind. Occ.p. 1644. Metten. Polypod.p. 33. IIab. Prom Mexico, south through tropical America and the West Indian Islands, all travellers. Mauritius, on the trunks of trees, Bouton, in Herb. Nostr. ; Bojer also records it as a native of Bourbon and Madagascar, which is quite likely. Sandwich Islands, Menzies, in Herb. Nostr. Juan Fernandez, Captain JFood. West tropical Africa, Sugarloaf Mountain, Barter, in Baikie’s Niger Expedition.. There is a peculiarity in Xiphopteris, besides the altered form of the portion of the frond which bears the fructification, that induces me to retain the genus; but in regard to the species, it seems to me that the two forms serrulata and myosuroides gradually pass into each other, and are often seen on the same frond. Others may think my X. Jamesoni (‘Second Century of Ferns,’ t. 14) not more worthy of specific distinction. I have stated my views on the subject, and the habit of the plant indi- cates something peculiar. In respect of Xiphopteris setosa, Kaulf. En. Fil. App. p. 274 (Grammitis, Pr., Polypod. Metten., Grammitis myosuroides, Raddi, not of others), I should be dis- NOVEMBER 1ST, 1861.posed, with Presl, to retain it in Grammitis. The sterile and fer- tlie portions of the fronds are quite uniform, and the principal characteristics of Xiphopteris are wanting: sori are produced on all the segments alike. Plate 44. Fertile plant of Xiphopteris serrulata, Kaulf.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile frond,—magnified. 2. Fertile, and 3. sterile portions of a frond; 4. Capsule :—more magnified.YmcenL Brooks, WitcKdB jjlitlr x0YW f(P lly 1 Yif n ijM V/' ' \ \J ' \ tM rf \ \ b \ m 1 <£ ^::-:t\ f\Plate 45. OSMUNDA cinnamomea, Linn. Cinnamon-coloured Osmunda. Osmunda cinnamomea; young plants clothed with copious, lax, ferruginous wool; stipites clustered, a foot and more long; fronds a foot to eighteen inches long, firm, coriaceo-membranaceous, dimorphous ; sterile ones oblong- lanceolate, pinnate; pinnae sessile, oblong, acuminate, deeply nearly to the rachis, pinnatifid ; segments broad-ovate, acute or obtuse, subfalcate, en- tire, costulate; veins once forked ; rachis slightly winged above; fertile ones crowded (except sometimes at the base, when there are a few sterile pinnae), bipinnate; pinnules oblong, densely capsuliferous on all sides. Osmunda cinnamomea. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1522. Mich. FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 273. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 98. Schk. Fil.p. 148. t. 46. Pursh, PI. Am. p. 657. Grev. and Hook. Enum. Pit. in Hot. Misc. v. 3. p. 231. A. Gray, Man. Bot. Illustr. p. 601. Hook. FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 265. Chapm. PI. S. U. St. p. 598. Liebm. Fit. Mex. p. 142. J. G. Sturm, in Mart. M. Bras.fasc. 23. p. 163. Osmunda Claytoniana, var. Conrad in Journ. Acad. Sc. Phil. 1829,p. 39. Osmunda alata. Hook, in Edinb. Phil. Journ. v. 6. p. 332. Osmunda imbricata. Kze. Schk. Ml. Suppl. v. 2. t. 112. Eilix florida major Virginiana per totam caulis longitudinem florescens. Moris. Hist. v. 3. p. 593. sect. 14. t. 4./. 3. Var. achillecefolia; sterile fronds narrow, pinnate; pinnae ovate, acuminate, laciniato-bipinnatifid. Hab. Throughout the United States, from New Orleans in the south, and throughout Canada, as far north as Montreal, Quebec, Newfoundland; not, that I am aware of, extending to the Hudson’s Bay Territories and the Rocky Mountains, nor on the Pacific side of North America. Huatusco, Mexico, Liebm. in Herb. Nostr.; Guatemala, Friedrichsthal; New Granada, Purdie; marshy places, Organ Mountains, Brazil, Gardner, n. 6957; North China, Manchuria, Wilford, n. 1119 ; Amur River, Maximowicz; Hakodadi, Japan, C. Wright. Var. (i. Quebec, Gordon.—Cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew. For a long time this very handsome species of Osmunda was considered peculiar to the United States and Canada, where it undoubtedly has its maximum. It is now found to extend it- self, probably following the course of the mountains southward to Mexico, Guatemala, New Granada, and Brazil, retaining its ordinary character, that is, the dimorphous fronds, in the fertile ones wholly fertile (or, comparatively rarely, two or three of the lowest pair of pinnae sterile); in this respect bearing the .same DECEMBER 1ST, 1861.relationship that Dr. Wallich’s 0. speciosa bears to 0. regalis. But the 0. speciosa having been since found with the upper portion of the sterile fronds fertile, it is now properly referred to 0. regalis. Now, there is also another well-known North American Osmunda (though, as now ascertained, also by no means peculiar to North America), 0. Claytoniana, L., which, as far as I can see, in no way differs from our 0. cinnamomea, save that the middle pinnae of the frond are fertile, those below and above sterile; and yet no one has intimated the probability of the two being varieties of each other. Mr. Conrad, l.c., gives a description and a figure of what he considers 0. Claytoniana, which has the apex only fertile. To which of the two now men- tioned can this be referred ? Certainly it approaches nearer to the 0. cinnamomea than to the 0. Claytoniana, L. (0. inter- rupta, Mich.). It is referred by Dr. Asa Gray, I think properly, to it, as var.frondosa. But Dr. Gray goes on to say, “rarely such fronds are found fertile in the middle; otherwise sterile." How do such in any way differ from 0. Claytoniana, L. (inter- rupta, Mich.)? I do not offer a decisive opinion on the sub- ject until I shall have the opportunity of figuring and describing the 0. Claytoniana. Plate 45. Portions of an entire plant, with sterile and fertile fronds, of an entire plant of Osmunda cinnamomea, Linn.,—natural size. Pig. 1. Lobe of a pinna, showing the venation. 2. A capsule. 3. Spores :—all more or less magnified.Ifi- '({ Fitch. ,<2fl et lith Vincent Brooic, impPlate 46. DRYMOGLOSSUM piloselloldes, Pr. Pilosella-leaved Drymoglossum. Drymoglossum piloselloldes; caudex long, filiform, creeping, wiry, clothed with closely pressed, small, ovate, laciniated, peltate scales and rooting here and there with short villous fibres; stipites two to ten lines long (in the fertile frond), distant, jointed and deciduous near the base, which is scaly; fronds of two kinds; sterile ones from half an inch to two inches long, or- bicular, subcordate, obovate or elliptical, thick and fleshy, coriaceous when dry, undivided, entire at the margins, glabrous, indistinctly costate; veins anastomosing, the areoles including free, simple, or branched and divari- cating veinlets; fertile fronds linear-oblong, obtuse, tapering at the base; sori in a line just within the margin, at first narrow, eventually spreading so as to cover the whole back, with a furrow down the middle; capsules mixed with stellated, paleaceous, peltate, and pedicellate hairs. Didymoglossum piloselloides. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 227. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. Pot. v. 4. p. 66. Pr. Epimel. Bot. p. 156. jFee, Mem. Vittar.p. 30. PtkroT'SIS piloselloides (et Pt. nummularia). Peso. Mem. Soc. Lim. Paris, v. 6. p. 218. Pterts piloselloides. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1530. Banks, Ie. Ecempf. t. 31. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 94 and 286. t. 2. /. 2. Schk. Fit. p. 83. t. 87. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 355 (not of Thunk. Jap.). Nothochl^NA piloselloides. Kaulf. Enum. p. 133. Wall. Cat. n. 139. Bl. Fil. Jav. p. 67. Acrostichum heterophyllum. Linn. Sp. Pl.p. 1523. Piper nummularium. Lam. III. v. 1. p. 82 (according to authors). Rheed. Hort. Malab. v. 12.p. 57. t. 29. Hab. Tropical India, most abundant, flourishing on the mossy trunks of trees, and amongst other decaying vegetable matter: Malay Islands, Malacca, and the continent of British India westward to Nilghiri {Mr. Beddome); Sin- capore, Tenasserim, and Silhet, Wallich, n. 139 ; Chittagong, Hook. fit. and Thomson; Ceylon, Gardner, n. 1156.—Cultivated in the Koyal Gardens of Kew. A well-marked species, of a peculiar, and, if the dimorphal fronds be considered, general habit, and texture, an easily recog- nized genus. M. Fee adopts three species, and adds a fourth rather doubtfully; and a fifth he has published in his ‘ Icono- graphies,’ with monomorphous fronds, in opposition to one of his most important definitions. Drymoglossum, “ a Tcenitide longe distat frondibus dissimilaribus.” Still more is it contrary to nature to unite the West Indian Tcenitis lanceolata, Kaulf., DECEMBER 1ST, 1861.(Pteropsis, Desv.) with Drymoglossum, while ray Drymoglossum riyidum (Ic. Plant, v. 10. t. 996) is united by Mr. Moore to Lindscea (Schizoloma) cordata, Gaud., and placed in Schizolep- ton, Fee; a genus, Mr. Moore says, “ differing from Drymoglos- sum in the absence of free included veinlets.” The Pteris piloselloides of Thunberg’s ' Flora Japonica,’ I omit here, because all the specimens in my herbarium (and they are not a few), from China and Japan, belong to a very different species, D. carnosum, Hook. (Nothoclilaena carnosa, Wall. Cat. n. 138), a native of North India, and most abundant in Japan; a plant ap- parently of more temperate latitudes. The “D. subcordatum, Fee,” of Eaton, in Herb, of the U. S. N. Pacif. Expl. Exp., is, I fear, only a var. of carnosum; but I am not sure whether it is the same as that of the original describer, as I have seen no au- thentic specimen; but I suspect it is, as Fee’s specimens are from China (Gaudichaud), and his description is not materially at variance. All the known species are from Eastern India. The resemblance of the smaller orbicular fronds of this or of some allied species to a Pepper {Piper or Peperomia), is sup- posed so far to have deceived Lamarck, that he has described it as a Pepper, Piper nummularium, Lam.! If the statement be correct, the genus inhabits Mauritius, though I do not find that locality recorded. Plate 46. Fertile plants of Drymoglossum piloselloides, Pr.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile frond, showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile frond. 3. Smaller portion of the same, showing the receptacle of the sorus. 4. Capsule. 5. Stellated, pedicellate, paleaceous hair, mixed with the capsules in the sorus:—all more or less magnified.17. VincenL Brooks, Imp "W! Fitch., del. etltth. i/ 1 / -— . ’ _ \ l\ \ \Plate 47. POLYPODIUM (Phymatodes) albo-squamatum, Bl. White-dotted Polypody. Polypodium (Phymatodes) albo-squamatum; caudex long, stout, creeping, clothed with long, subulate, falcate, finely attenuated brown scales; sti- pites a span to a foot high, terete, purplish-brown, polished ; fronds a foot to a foot and a half long, broad, membranaceous, pinnated; pinnse five to seven, all petioled, especially the terminal one, six inches to a span long, long-lanceolate, finely acuminate, entire at the margin, costate, veins irregu- larly anastomosing, so as to form large angular areoles, free only and forked at the margins; these areoles include free veinlets, simple or forked, the forks often divaricating, their apices clavate; on the superior surface correspond- ing with those clavate apices, are white, cretaceous scales or dots (whence the specific name); sori in two lines or series on the pinna, halfway be- tween the costa and the margin, approximate, generally extending nearly the whole length of the pinna, always compital (placed on the junction of the reticulated veins). Polypodium albo-squamatum. Bl. Bn. Fil. Jav. p. 132. FI. Jav. p. 137. t. 57. Metten. Polypod. p. 108. t. 1./. 29 (fragment, with venation). Pleopeltis albo-squamatum. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 193 (not Drynaria albido- squamata. J. Sm. in Hook. Journ. Hot. p. 397, which is Polvpodium va- rians, Bl.). IIab. Java, Blume; Borneo, Wallace.—Cultivated in the Eoyal Gardens of Kew. A handsome, graceful, and well-marked species, yet nearly al- lied to the P. varians of Blume, which Mr. J. Smith mistook for it in naming Mr. Cuming’s n. 286, in the £ Journal of Botany.’ The venation quite accords with the section “ Drynaria ’ of Poly- podium, here forming rather large areoles, but having free veinlets towards the margin: where the free veinlets terminate (and their apices are always clavate), we find on the upper side of the pinnse white dots, arising probably from an exudation, which deposits a calcareous orbicular scale or crust. Such white secretions are not uncommon on many tropical Ferns: to a less extent they are seen on Polypodium plebejum, described at our Plate 48 (next Plate); but they are there too few and inconspicuous to be represented in the figure. Plate 47. Fertile plant of Polypodium (Phymatodes) albo-squamatum, Bl.,— natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of the upper side of a pinna, showing the venation and the cretaceous dots, at the margin and on the disk. 2. Under side of ditto, with a sorus, and the receptacle of a second, showing the compital attachment. 3. Scale from the caudex :—all magnified. DECEMBER 1ST, 1861.W Fitch.,del etlithPlate 48. POLYPODIUM (§ Eupolypodium) plebejum, ScMecht. Plebeian Polypody. Polypodium (§ Eupolypodium) plebejum, Schlecht.; caudex moderately stout, elongated, creeping, densely covered with small, lanceolate, fringed and crisped brown scales, frequently with a black costa in the centre; stipites purplish-brown, distant, three to four and six inches long, margined with an obscure wing on each side, more distinct upwards, firm, coriaceo-mem- branaceous, six inches to a span and more long, in outline oblong, scarcely acuminated, with a truncated base, deeply, almost to the very rachis pin- natifid (or pinnated with a decurrent wing); the segments horizontally pa- tent, linear-oblong, often narrower above the base, so as to be subspathu- late, more or less acute or obtuse, subcrenato-serrate, naked above, here and there having a few cretaceous dots near the margin, beneath and on the rachis and costae more or less clothed with scattered, small, ovate, acu- minated, appressed, and subpeltate scales; veins immersed, indistinct, once or twice forked, free, the lowest superior veinlet bearing the globose or sub- oval sorus; the sori forming two rows, halfway between the costa and the margin. Polypodium plebejum. Schlecht. in Linncea, v. 5. p. 607. Kze. in Linncea, v. 18.^?. 319. Liebm. Ml. Mex. p. 46. Polyp odium leucostictum. Kl. in Linncea, v. 20. p. 380. Polypodium Karwinskianum. Metten. Polyp, p. 66. Eat. Ml. Wright et Fendl. p. 198. Margin aria Karwinskiana. Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 188 (name only). Hab. Mexico, on mountains, three to eleven thousand feet, Harris; Galeotti, n. 6277 ; Idebmann. Vera Paz, Guatemala, Salvyn. New Granada, Moritz, n. 336 ; Harlweg, n. 1499 ; Pendler, n. 252. Andes of Quito, Jameson, n. 14 and 54 ; Spruce, n. 5239 (large). Trees on the Organ Mountains, Gardner, n. 5920.—Cultivated at Kew. Dr. Mettenius adopts the name of Karwinskianum for this species, because of its priority over P. plebejum; but it was a name without any note or remark by which the plant could be recognized. Schlechtendal gave it a name from its general re- semblance to our common Polypods, “ e viliore grege P. vul- yaris,” with which it has no small affinity; but the curious sub- peltate scales, close-pressed to the under side of the frond, to- together with the general form, bring it nearer to the well-known P. incanum and its allies, a group in which the venation some- times represents that of Maryinaria, sometimes that of P vul- DECEMBER 1ST, 1861.gare; hence Presl appears to have placed it in Marginaria, while others refer it to Eupolypodium. Plate 48. Fertile plants of Polypodium (Eupolypodium) plebejum, Schlecht., —natural size. Fig. 2. Portion of a segment of the frond, showing the vena- tion, and a sorus,—magnified. 3. Scale, from the back of the frond,—more magnified.tPlate 49. SCHIZiEA (§ Actinostachys) digit at a, Sw. Fingered Schizaea. ScmziEA (§ Actinostachys) digitata; caudex short, creeping; fronds crowded, a span to a foot and a half long, two lines wide, short-stipitate, erect, linear, subcoriaceo-membranaceous, the costa prominent and keeled at the back; receptacles of the capsules (appendages) narrow-linear, 5-]0-12, erect, in two secund rows, digitato-pinnate, the margins indexed, including four close-packed lines of numerous, small, obliquely oblong or subpyri- form, obtuse capsules, without hairs, of a rich dark-brown chestnut colour, the upper half striated longitudinally (forming a kind of annulus), the lower half reticulated. Sciiizjea digitata. Sw. Syn. Fil. pp. 150 and 379. t. 4. /. 1. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 86. Blutn.e, En. Fil. Jav. p. 255. Actinostachys digitata. Trail. Cat. n. 1. Presl, Suppl. Tent. Pteridogr. p. 73. Schiz-EA marginata. Wall, in Herb. 1823. Acrostichum digitatum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1524; and in Amcenit. Acad. v. 1. p. 157./. 1. Fl.Zeyl.p. 379. Hab. India, Ceylon; Burmann, Gardner, re. 1182, T/iwailes. Trariquebar, Klein, Bottler. Singapore, WalUch. Philippine Islands, Cuming, n. 371. Chitta- gong, Hook. fil. and Thomson, n. 347. Mergui, Malacca, Khasya, Griffith, Parish; Labuan, Thos. Lobb, Motley; Bonin Islands, C. Wright; Java, Blume, Thos. Lobb. Feejee Islands, Scemann, n. 793. New Caledonia, C. Moore, growing on dry, bare, exposed situations. Isle of Pines, J.Mac- gillivray (stony shady places).—Cultivated at Kew; received from Mr. Thwaites, Ceylon. This very interesting Schizaa, quite new to our gardens, may be considered the representative in the East Indies of the Scldzaa pennida, Sw. (S. trilateralis, Schk. and Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 54), of Western India and South America, and if there were characters worthy of constituting a genus, both would be included. Mr. Brown, in his Prodromus, p. 162, has a note on the S. digitata;—“A congencribus differt appendice digitata, nec pennata, capsulis confertis nec biseriatis, nec extus dehiscentibus : an ideo separanda?” This led the excellent Dr. Wallich to give the present species the appropriate generic name of Actinostachys. But Mr. Brown does not appear to hav.e had perfect specimens before him at the time. To me the dif- ferences from Schizaa are rather sectional than generic, The JANUARY 1ST, 1862.spikes of fructification are in reality shortly pinnate in two rows, as in other Schizaeas; the capsules, if not in two rows, are in two double rows, one on each side the costa, and I perceive no difference in the dehiscence of the capsules. From the S. (§ Actinostachys) pennula, it is at once distinguished by its plane, or nearly so, fronds, and especially by the absence of the copious, long, chaffy, ferruginous hairs on the margins and among the capsules on the appendices. Plate 49. Fertile plant of Schizcea (§ Actinostachys) d'ujitata, Sw.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of the frond. 2. Portion of a capsuliferons appendage. 3. Section of the same. 4. Capsule. 5. Spores:—all more or less magnified.50 lA* ■ Plate 50. GYMN0GRAMME calomelanos, Kaulf. Black-stalked Powdery Gymnogramme. Gymnogramme calomelanos; caudex short, suberect, stout, densely rooting at the base; stipites tufted, one to two feet long, ebeneous-purple or black, as is the rachis; fronds about the same length as the stipes, oblong, acu- minate, subcoriaceous, beneath pulverulent with a white (or yellow) cera- eeous substance, bi-tripinnate; primary pinnae lanceolate, secondary ones oblong-lanceolate, cuneate at the base, and subdecurrent, more or less acute or acuminate, inciso-serrate, pinnatifid, or at their base again pinnate; their apices sometimes sharply serrated; lowest superior basal pinnules often sub- auriculate; veinlets dichotomous, erecto-patent; sori oblong, lax, reddish, occupying the forked veins. Gymnogramme calomelanos. Kaulf. En. Ml. p. 76. Hook. Gen. Ml. t. 76. Metten. Fil. Hort. Lips.p. 41. J. Sm. Cat. Cult. Ferns, p. 18. Acrostichtjm calomelanos. Linn. Sp.Pl.p. 1529. Schk. Fil. p. 4. t. 5. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 15. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 123. Hort. Berol. t. 41. Fisch. et Langsd. Fil. t. 3 (ver!/ good). Ceropteris calomelanos. Link, Hort. Berol. v. 2. p. 53. Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 183. Filix non ramosa major, caule nigro, etc. Sloan. Jam. v. 1. t. 30. /. 2. Filix albissimo pulvere conspersa. Plum. Fil. v. 30. t. 40. /3. aureo-Jlava; frond golden-yellow beneath. G. chrysophylla, Kaulf.!? Hab. Tropical America, abundant. West India Islands, universal; Cuba, C. Wright, n. 298 and Ml, n. 1047; var. elata; some of the pinnules an inch and a half long, all obtuse. Dominica, Finlay (some specimens quite golden-yellow beneath, others white). Central America, Nicaragua, C. Wright; Panama, Fendler; Galapagos, Capt. Wood; New Granada, Mo- ritz, n. 113 (large, pinnules one and a half inch and more long, subentire); Bogota, Holton, n. 24; Caraccas, Linden, n. 264; British Guiana, Parker, Sagot, Appun, n. 170 and 133 (large, pinnules narrow, sharply acuminated). Peru, Matheios; Ecuador, Jameson. Brazil, frequent, Bio Negro, Spruce, re. 2969, etc. Tropical Africa, Prince’s Island, Barter in Baikie’s Second Niger Expedition, n. 1912. Fernando Po, Barter, Mann, n. 137, common forms.—Var. golden-yellow beueath, Porto Bico, Baron de Schach; Gua- temala, Skinner. Hot valleys of Ecuador, Seemann, n. 948; Guadeloupe, L’Herminier; “ G. chrysophylla, Willd.,” and again “ G. Martensii, Bory” (from the Herb. Mus. Paris); Brazil, Gardner, re. 12 (rather sulphur than golden-yellow).—Cultivated in Kew and elsewhere; and in the collection of the Oxford Botanic Garden, occasionally producing pinnae, of which some of the pinnules are pure white on the under side, while others are rich golden-yellow, as represented in our Plate, fig. 3. One of the most common Ferns of tropical America, and scarcely known beyond that extensive region; but the more the JANUARY 1ST, 1862.botany of tropical Africa is opened up to us, the more we find there of species previously supposed to be exclusively of Ame- rican or Indian origin. It is one of a group of Gymnogramme, distinguished by the presence of pulverulent yet ceraceous sub- stance, sometimes white and sometimes golden-yellow; the first are called by cultivators “ Silver,” the other “ Golden Ferns.” But here, as I have had occasion to observe on some other Ferns with this exudation on the under surface of the fronds (see our figures and description of Cheilanlhes argenteu, Ilk. Fil. Exot. t. 95), the colour varies from white to yellow and golden colour, and here giving rise, I suspect, to the formation of new species. Specimens I take to be G. chrysophylla, Katdf., I can- not distinguish but by the colour of this substance; but now that we find the two colours on one and the same plant, and even on one and the same pinna, and well defined, it will, I presume, be found necessary to unite them. But to this subject I hope to return again ere long, for it deserves further conside- ration. Our figure represents what may be looked upon as the normal form of the species, but, like many other Ferns of large geo- graphical range, it differs much in size (often four feet high even in cultivation), and with pinnules varying exceedingly in length and breadth, and in the outline of the margin more or less incised or pinnatifid, in texture from membranaceous to coriaceous, and in the plane or reflected edges. Different as the ordinary form of G. tartarea, Desv. (Ilemiouitis dealbata, Willd.), may be from this, I find intermediate states which are very puzzling; and I possess not a few specimens proving that the white under side sometimes assumes a rich and uniform golden colour in G. tartarea. Plate 50. Pig. 1 and 2. Stipes and portion of a fertile frond of Gijrano- gramme calomelanos, Kaulf.,—natural she. 3. Pinna, with golden and white pinnules; irora the Oxford Botanic Garden, seen from beneath,—natural size, 4. Upper side of pinnule, showing the venation. 5. Under side of a fertile pin- nule,—ma/jnified.31. vV’ Fitch,, dd .etlid: Virulent Brooks, iTtjp.Plate 51. DAYALLIA NovjE-Zelandle, Col. New Zealand Davallia. Davallia Novce-Zelandice; caudex long, creeping, hairy (not chaffy), as well as the lower part of the stipes and the axils of the primary pinnae, with soft, copious, jointed, ferruginous hairs ; fronds a span to a foot and more long, ovate, acuminate, tripinnate, membranaceous, but rather rigid, divisions all rather distant, finely cut, ultimate pinnules deeply pinnatifid, lanceolate; segments ovato-lanceolate, falcate, cuspidato-ncute, entire, or with one or two teeth ; sori rather large, upon a lateral tooth, rarely in a sinus; invo- lucres subreniform, at length forced back from the enlargement of the sorus ; secondary rachises flexuose. Davallia Novee-Zelandi®. Colenso, in Tasm. Journ. of Nat. Sc. p. 52. Hook. Fit. in Lond. Journ. of Bot. v. 3. p. 418. Hook. Sp. 'Fit. v. 1. p. 158. t. 51 B. Hook. Fit. FI. Nov. Zel. v. !i.p. L9. IIab. New Zealand, Northern Island, J. Cunningham in Herb. Heward (D. his- pida, Heio. MSS.). Common on the coast and in the interior, Colenso, n. 50, Stephenson, n. 121.—Cultivated at Kew. Quite distinct from any other Davallia, but allied to the East Indian D. clcerophylla, Wall., and to f). affinis, J. Sm.; also an Indian species. In size most resembling the former. Caudex slender, creeping, hairy, or almost tomentose, with jointed, soft, ferruginous hairs, not at all scaly, sending down numerous, hairy, fibrous roots from beneath. Stipes six to eight inches high, mahogany-brown, glossy; main rachis the same, flexuose and slender. Erond eight inches to a foot long, membrana- ceous, but very firm ; thrice pinnated. Sori large in proportion to the size of the segments, often equal in breadth to the teeth on which they are placed. The colour of the*frond is brownish- green, slightly glossy, much paler below. Mr. Heward had given a very appropriate name to this species in his herbarium, which we would gladly have adopted, but that Mr. Colenso’s name is published in the ! Tasmanian Journal of Science.’ Plate 51. Caudex, stipites, and fertile frond of Davallia Novx-Zelandite, Colenso,— natural she. Pig. 1. Pinnule, with sori,—magnified. 2. Segment of ditto, with the involucre forced back, showing the receptacle of the sorus,— magnified. JANUARY 1st, 1862.Plate 52. LOMAEIA Magellanica, Desv. Magellanic Lomaria. Lomaria Magellanica, Desv.; caudex one to two feet high, erect, stout, subar- boreous, clothed at the summit and at the base of the stipites with a dense mass of slender, coriaceo-membranaceous, subulate, firm, glossy, falcate scales, one and a half inch long; stipites rather short, stout, four to six inches long, having two rows of distant tubercular scales (abortive pinnae?); sterile fronds one and a half to two feet or more long, oval-oblong, acumi- nate, very coriaceous, rigid, pinnated with close-placed pinnae, four to six inches long, half an inch wide, linear-oblong, acuminate, sessile, terminal ones only subconfluent at the base, frequently at tfie inferior base bearing a very distinct, oblong auricle; fertile frond oblong, obtuse; pinnae close- placed, linear, lower ones often auricled at the inferior base; involucre dark-brown, at first revolute, and concealing the capsules. Lomaria Magellanica. Desv. in Mag. Nat. Berl. 1811, p. 330, in M6m. Soc. Linn. Far. v. 6. p. 289. Flook.fil. FI. Antarct. v. 2. p. 393. Brack. Fil. U. S. Expl. Exp. p. 126. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 3. p. 27. Lomaria setigera. Gaud, in Ann. Sc. Nat. v. 5. p. 9S. Lomaria robusta. Carm. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. v. 12. p. 512. Lomaria Boryana. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 292. Pappe and Raws. En. Fil. Cap. p. 27. Onoclea Boryana. Sic. Syn. Fil. p. 111. Lomaria cinnamomea. Kavlf. En. Fil.p. 153. Lomaria Ryani. Kaulf. En. Fil.p. 155. Kze. Anal. Pterid. t. 12. Pteris osmundioides. Borg, Voy.p. 194. t. 3. Hab. Straits of Magellan, and Tierra del Fuego, and Falkland Islands, very abundant, Commerson, Freycinet, Pernetty, Darwin, J. D. Hooker (Hermite Island); extending on the Pacific side of South America to Chili and Juan Fernandez. Tristan d’Acunha, Carmichael. Brazil, Gardner and others (“a tree Fern, four feet high”), British Guiana, New Granada, various collectors; Peru, Mathews; West Indies. South Africa, Mauritius and Bourbon, Madagascar, Bojer and others.—Cultivated at Kew, from roots imported by Mr. Standish from South Chili. Tibs is as yet a rare species in British Ferneries, and, though usually kept in a cool greenhouse, will probably succeed well in the open air, since it is a native of the extreme south of South America, yet growing as far north as the West Indian islands. JANUARY 1st, 1862.further remarks on the synonymy and on the geographical range may be seen in the third volume of the ‘ Species Filicum/ /. c. Plate 52. Sterile and fertile fronds of Lomaria Magellanica, Desv.,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile pinna, showing the venation. 2. Section of a fertile pinna. 3. Portion of an involucre, with the receptacle from whence the capsules have been removed. 4. Scale from the base of the stipes -.—all more or less magnified.Plate 53. LOMAEIA procera, Spr. Tall Lomaria. Lomaria procera; caudex erect or ascending, stout, woody, elongated, clothed at the extremity (as is the base of the stipes) with, large, ovato-lanceolate, ferruginous, opaque, chaffy scales; fronds tufted, ample, from a span to four feet high, including the stipites, oblong-ovate, coriaceous, pinnated; pinnae numerous on the larger specimens, generally horizontally patent; sterile ones (often partially fertile) oblong or oblong-lanceolate, three inches to a span long, sometimes an inch wide, sharply acuminate, sessile, un- equally cordate at the base, subfalcate, the margins finely serrated, terminal pin me free, often very long; veins close, compact, simple or forked near the base; fertile pinn® linear, more or less broad, two to six inches long, dis- tant, erecto-pat.ent, cordate at the base, the apex suddenly contracted, sori with very crowded capsules ; involucres dark brown, marginal or originating at some distance from the margin, involute and fornicate, at length break- ing up into segments and spreading. Lomakia procera. Spreng. Syst. Veg. v. 4. p. 65. A. Cunn. Bot. N. Zeal, in Comp. Bot. Mag. v. 2. p. 263 (excl. syn. Richard.). Hook. 1c. PI. t. 127, 128. Sp. Ml. v. 3. p. 23. Hook. fil. FI. Antarct. v. 1. p. 110. FI. N. Zeal. v. 2. p. 27. t. 75.—Var. minor. Brack. Fil. U. S. Expl. Exp. p. 127. Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud, Crypt, t. 2 E? {figure only, no descrip- tion; scales at the base of the stipites narrower and longer). Lomaeia latifolia. Colenso, in Tasm. Journ. Nat. Sc. v. 2. p. 176. Lomaeia Capensis. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 291. Ramson and Pappe, En. Fil. Cap. p.21. Blechnom Capense. Schlecht. Adumbr. Fil.p. 34. t. 18. Onoclea Capensis. Sw. Syn. Fil.p. 111. Osmunda Capensis. Linn. Mant. Stegania procera and S. minor. Br. Prodr. FI. Nov. Holl. p. 153. Lomaria Chilensis. Klfs. En. Fil. p. 154. Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 64 B {sterile and fertile pinnae and analysis). C. Gay, Fil. Chil. p. 23. Lomaria spectabilis? Liebm. Fil. Mex. p. 83. Rich. FI. N. Zeal. t. 247 {fer- tile frond only.) Lomaria lineata. Willd. Sp. FI. v. 5. p. 290 {venation more distinct). Osmunda lineata. Sw. Syn. Ml. p. 111. Blechnum procerum. Labill. FI. Nov. Holl. v. 2. p. 87. t. 247. Lomaria striata. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 291. Onoclea procera. Spreng. in Schrad. Journ. v. 3. p. 267. Osmunda procera. Forst: Prodr. n. 414. Asplenium procerum. Bernh. Act. Enf. 1802, p. 4. /. 1. FEBRUARY 1ST, 1862.PARABLECHNUM procerum. Pr. Epim. Bot. p. 109. Lomaria Gilliesii. Hook, et Grew. Ic. Til. t. 207. Orthogramme Gilliesii. Pr. Epim. Hab. A Fern of wide, yet not general geographic distribution; its maximum is in the southern hemisphere, but in the New World it extends as far north as Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. It seems to have been first detected by Forster in New Zealand, and since as far south as Banks1 Island {Dr. Lycdl). It occurs also in Tasmania, in Lord Auckland’s and Campbell’s Islands, in South Australia, South Africa, in the Malay and the South Pa- cific Islands; in Jamaica, St. Vincent, Dominica, Guadeloupe, and in va- rious parts of South America, chiefly in mountain districts.—Cultivated at Kevv. Those who desire to sec a more full history of this species, can consult the four very closely printed pages on the subject in the ‘ Species Filicum,' /. c. It is a well-marked species, yet present- ing not a few variations, enough however to induce different au- thors to entertain different opinions as to their specific identity. Plate 53. Lomaria procera, Sprang. Fig. 1. Apex of a caudex, with young fronds and the bases of mature stipites. 3. Sterile frond,—natural size. 3. Por- tion of a sterile pinna, showing the venation,—magnified. 4. Fertile frond,— natural size. 5. Section of a fertile pinna, with the involucres originating some way within the margin. 6. Section ot a fertile pinna, with the involucres mar- ginal. 7. Scale from the base of the stipes :—all magnified. kv / \V'^\! f tvJxSli ia~ XK\Lf \wj J \mJ JjmJZPlate 54. TOPE A HYMEN OPTIYLLOIDE S, Rich. Ilyinenophyllum-like Todea. Todea (§ Leptopteris) hymenophylloides ; stipites tufted, a span to a foot long, and, as well as the rachis, deciduously ferruginous-tomentose, fronds oliva- ceous, membranaceous, one to two feet long, ovate-oblong, bipinnate; pri- mary pinnae sessile, oblong, acuminate, often opposite, four to six inches long, secondary ones (or pinnules) crowded, one inch long, ovato-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, the segments narrow, simple or forked, acute; veins simple or forked, sori oblong at the base of each vein beneath, consisting of seven to nine large globose bipartite pedicellate reticulated coriaceous cap- sules. Todea hymenophylloides. Rich, and Less. Fil. N. Zeal, in Voy. Astral, p. 97. t. 16. Hook. Gen. Ml. t. 16. Todea pellucida. Carm. in Grev. and Hook. Bn. Ml. in Hook. Bot. Misc. v. 3. p. 232. Hook. Ic. PI. Rar. v. 1. t. 8. A. Cmm. FI. N. Zeal, in Hoolc. Comp, to Bot. Mag. p. 362. Leptopteris hymenophylloides. Pr. Suppl. Tent. Pteridogr. y?. 71. Hook. fil. FI. N. Zeal. v. 2. p. 48. Hab. New Zealand, Northern and Middle Islands, and as far south as Banks’ Peninsula, Banks, Forster, and all succeeding voyagers.—Cultivated at Kew. No figure can do justice to the beauty of this plant, especially of those specimens which exhibit fronds three feet long, with its delicate and finely cut fronds of the texture of HymenophyUum or Trichomanes. Different however as is the texture of the frond from that of the much better-known Todea Africana, yet the fructifications are the same. Although I was myself formerly disposed to preserve Presl’s genus Leptopteris for the present species, Todea Fraseri, Hook, et Grev. Ic. fil. t. 101, and the still more beautiful T. superba of Colenso (‘ Century of Ferns,’ t. 11), yet on a further comparison I think it best to constitute of them a section or subgenus. It is to be hoped the T. superba will ere long be introduced to our gardens. It grows in dense tufts; some of the fronds, Mr. Colenso says, are “ four feet in length, the old ones spread- ing outwards, while the younger ones, generally rising three at FEBRUARY 1ST, 1862.a time, circinate, and of a light green colour, rise in the most graceful suberect manner from the centre.” Plate 54. Entire small fertile plant of Todea hymenophjlloides, Rich.,—na- tural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a pinnule, with a sorus,—magnified. 2. Cap- sule,—more magnified. y^\ \^r'-'L'iM.uj Ymcerct Brooks, ImpPlate 55. PTERIS (§ Litobrochia) podophylla, Sir. Long-stalked Pteris. Pteeis (§ Litobrochia) podophylla, Sw.; stipes bright pale-tawny, tall, very stout (thicker than one’s finger), more or less muricated near the base, branched, as well as the stout rachis in a bi-trifurcate manner; fronds ample, tri-quadri- pinnate (several feet long and broad), subcoriaceous, glabrous; idtimate pinnae or pinnules petiolate, four inches to a foot long, broad, linear-oblong, acu- minate, an inch to an inch and a half broad, deeply and regularly pinnatifid; segments approximate dimidiato-oval falcate acute (scarcely acuminate) ser- rated at the apex, the sinuses rounded; veins copiously anastomosing, form- ing three or four series, its broad oblong subhexagonal areoles, of which the costal ones are the largest and parallel with costa, sori continuous following the course of the sinuses. Pteris podophylla. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 100. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 403. Ag. Sp. Gen. Pterid. p. 75. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 2. p. 227. Litobrochia podophylla. Pr. Tent. Pteridogr. p. 149. Litobrochia camptocarpa. Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 137. Lonchitis pedata. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1536. Lonciiitis erecta tribrachiata, lateralibus bipartitis, mediorecto simplici. Browne, Jam. p. 89. t. 1. 11A n. Tropical America, Jamaica, P. Browne, Swartz, Titssac, Purdie, F)r. Alex- ander Wilson; Venezuela, Fendler, n. 98, 99; Moritz, n. 47; Caracas,Lin- den, n. 175,1539, and n. 542.—Var. minor, Bogota, Holton, n. 50; Ecuador, Jameson; Ocana, altitude 4-5000 feet, Schlim, n. 601.—Cultivated iti the Gardens at Kew. This is one of the finest of the many fine species of Pteris, § Litobrochia. The only figure hitherto published of it is that of Patrick Browne, more than a hundred years ago, and far from a bad one, considering its antiquity. A healthy, but still young, fertile specimen in the Royal Gardens, has enabled us to give a reduced figure of the entire plant, and of two pinnae of the natural size, but these are far from being among the largest the plant produces. The stipes, not often found in the herba- rium, is always of a rich tawny colour, and is smooth, or more or less muricated, especially near the base. For a long time the species was supposed to be a native of Jamaica only. Plate 55. Fig. 1. Very reduced figure of Pteris (Litobrochia) podophylla, Sw. 2. Portion of a rachis, with two fertile pinnules,—natural size. 3. Portion of a sterile segment, showing the venation,—magnified. 4. Portion of a fertile seg- ment, showing the involucre and capsules,—more magnified. FEBRUARY 1st, 1802.56. VFitdriPlate 56. TRICHOMANES (§ Ptilophylltjm) Bancroftii. Dr. Bancroft's Trichomanes. Trichomanes (§Ptilophyllum) Bancroftii, Hook, and Grev.; caudex often creep- ing and slender and filiform, hairy rather than scaly; stipites solitary or subc£Espitose, alate with a broad decurrent wing; fronds three to four inches long, oblong or ovate, deeply pinnatifid; lobes or segments oblong or sub- ovate, variously lobedand pinnatifid or even sub-bipinnatifid,so thatthe frond is then tripinnatifid, with linear obtuse segments; veins pinnated, subflexu- oSe, veinlets or branches one to each division or lobe ; their veins and the raehises bear scattered clavate soft hairs beneath; involucres sunk in the substance of the frond at the apex of a lobe or segment, infundibuliform, with a spreading entire mouth; receptacles much exserted, very fragile. Trichomanes Bancroftii. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fit. t. 204. Hoolc. Bp. Fit. v. 1. p. 123. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenoph. p. 16. Brest, Ifymenoph. p. 16. Epim. Bot. 17. J. G. Sturm in Mart. FI. Brasil, fuse. 18. p. 259. Trichomanes coriaceum. Kze. Fit. Bcepp. in Linncea, v. 9. p. 105. Analect. Bteridograph. p. 46. t. 29. f. 1. Ptilopiiyllum Bancroftii. Van den Boscli, Gen. Hymenoph. p. 22. Hab. Tropical America, but apparently peculiar to the West Indian Islands and the northern and eastern continent, south to Brazil. First detected by Dr. Bancroft in Jamaica, since found there by TViles and Higson, by March, Wil- son, Bardie, etc.; St.Vincent, L. Guilding; Guadeloupe, L’Herminier; Cuba, C. Wright, n. 955. Guiana, British, French, and Dutch, Hostmann, ScJtom- burglc, Appun, Sagot, C. S. Barker, Le Brieur; Para, Brazil, near Collaris (not “Peru,” as given by Kunze on the distributed specimens), Baippig; Bana de Rio Negro, Spruce, n. 871, and St. Gabriel, n. 2344 : these seem to be the only localities known in Brazil; even Martins does not seem to have met with it.—Cultivated at Kew. A well-marked species, if general structure be considered, yet variable in composition, from pinnatifid with broad and sinuated lobes, as here represented, or tri-pinnatifid, as given in our prin- cipal figure in the ‘ leones Filicum.’ Kunze’s figure, above quoted, is bipinnatifid. In many states of this plant there is a decided creeping caudex. but in many of our own specimens (as the accompanying figure, and in Kunze’s), there are only tufted fibrous roots visible. Attempts have been made by Presl and Van den Bosch, to form many genera of Hymenophyllim and Trichomanes, the latter undoubtedly the most successfully, yet, I fear, with not very FEBRUARY 1ST, 1862.tangible characters. Onr present Trichomanes would fall into PttlophyUum of Van den Bosch, of which the character given is, “ Frons 1-2-pinnatifida raargine denticulata” (hardly in this plant), “ pilis hyalinis sessilibus simplicibus (raro furcatis) sparsis obsessa, venula pinnatifida vel furcata, sori terminates. ” Hyme- nophyllacece are by this author now grouped into twenty-four species. We look anxiously for the more complete development of this author’s views. His ‘ Hymenophyllaceae Javanicae,’ a quarto volume which has just appeared, gives admirable descriptions, and equally admirable figures, of what is known of this beautiful tribe of plants in the Dutch East Indian possessions. Pi,ate 56. Tuft of Trichomanes Ptilophyllum) Bancroftii, Hook, and Grev., fertile,—natural size. Fig. 1. Primary segment, with sori,—magnified. 2. In- volucre and receptacle of capsules,—more magnified.51 Ifjlpfex Vmr.e.nr- Brooks, Imp • WFitch.dsl. etlith IPlate 57. ACROSTICHUM (§ Lomariopsis) * Yapurense, Mart. Strong-veined Acrostichum. Acrostichum (§ Lomariopsis) Yapurense; caudex long, stout, scandent (“climb- ing up young trees,” Spruce), in general especially the new shoots very scaly; stipites a span to a foot long, more or less scaly, especially below ; rachis subsquamose, winged towards the apex; fronds one to two feet long, oblong, ovate, pinnate; pinnae six or seven to thirty and more; sterile ones four to seven inches long, jointed upon the rachis, terminal one generally the longest, one to two inches broad, elliptical-oblong, obliquely subcuneate and sessile at the base, very firm, subcoriareo-membranaceous often cuspi- dato-acuminate, the margin entire or obscurely crenato-dentate; veins ap- proximate, very conspicuous, parallel, simple or forked, prominent, especially beneath ; fertile pinme much smaller, oblong-lanceolate, capsuliferous to the very entire margin, the base rounded. Acrostichum Yapurense. Mart. Ic. Plant. Crypt. Bras. p. 86. t. 24 (excellent). Acrostichum phlebodes. K;e. in Linneea. v. 9. p. 33. Lomariopsis phlebodes. Fee, Acrostich. p. 66. Lomariopsis Prieuriana. Fee, Acrostich. p. 66. t. 25./. 1. Lomariopsis erythrodes? and L. elongata ? Fee, Acrost. p. 67. Hab. Tropical America; Brazil; on old trees in the forests of the rivers Japura and Madeira, Martins; Para, Spruce, n. 27 and 569; Organ Mountains, Gardner, n. 101, Sellow; Guiana, he Prieur, Hoslmann, n. 188 and 179, Appun, n. 12S, Saynt, n. 712; Trinidad, Bardie, Cruger; Jamaica, Wilson; Peru, Pceppig; Tarapotn, Spruce; Magdalena, N. Granada, Holton, n. 21. —Cultivated at ICew, from roots sent by Dr. Cruger from Trinidad. Dr. Martius’ name of Yapurense {Yapurense would perhaps be more correct) has the claim of priority over that of the more * Lomariopsis of Pee, which I here preserve as a section of Acrostichum, has no character to distinguish it from Acrostichum of Fee (Elaphoglossim of Schott and other authors), except that the individuals that compose it are pinnated (not simple); and now that the original Acrostichum is so much split into genera, the very name has been wellnigh abolished ; and it does seem to me strange that Presl and others should fix upon Acrostichum. aureum, Linn., as the fit representative—a geuus of one species, too, as I believe, for this once extensive genus. Moore asserts that it is the “ Linnaean type,” and quotes ‘ Linnaeus Gen. Fil.’ (Plant. ?) p. 785. Now I have consulted Linnaeus’s works. In the first edition of his ‘ Syst. Nat.’ (1735) his only reference under Acrostichum, is “ Muraria.” In his ‘Genera Plantarum,’ 1737, n. 785 (and therefore I presume the one referred to by Moore), the first synonym is “ Ruta muraria, Tourn. t. 317,” and in his edition of the same work, 1754, it is the only one given: and this is Asplenium Ruta-muraria, Linn.! march 1st, 1862.appropriate one of Kunze, phlebodes, judging from the dates of the respective volumes in which they have appeared: Martius’, 1828-34, Kunze, 1835. One of the striking characteristics of the plant is the very conspicuous prominent veins, especially beneath : to this may be added the large and handsome fronds, the great size of the pinnules, their almost entire margins, and the broader and lanceolate fertile pinnae, as the distinguishing features from the Acrostichum sorbifolium, Linn. And, if we were to con- fine our attention to the two as cultivated in the Tropical Fern- house at Kew, there are few Botanists who would not pro- nounce them very distinct. Unfortunately my herbarium pos- sesses such a suite of specimens of the latter as greatly to invalidate the soundness of the specific differences. In both the pinnae are jointed upon the rachis; in both the caudex is long, stout, branched, scandent, and fusco-paleaceous: in A. sorbifolium the venation is occasionally very prominent, and the pinnae also vary a good deal in size; while in A. Yapurense. I have seen the fer- tile pinnae almost as narrow and as linear as in sorbifolium. In our present plant, as in sorbifolium, there are abnormal forms of the pinnae; not unfrequently the sterile ones are sud- denly contracted into a caudato-cuspidate point, and sometimes they are partially converted into fertile ones (the rest sterile), as figured by Fee, in his Lomariopsis Prieuriana. In one of my specimens, from British Guiana, the terminal pinna is alone partially fertile, and there the capsules are confined to the veins. Plate 57. Pig. 1. Apex of a caudex, and base of a stipes of Acrostichum, (Lomariopsis) Yapurense, Mart. 2. Portion of a sterile frond, and fig. 3 of a fertile one :—natural size. 4. Portion of a sterile pinna, showing the venation. 5. Portion of a fertile pinna, with part of the Capsules removed :—magnified.Plate 58. ACROSTIOHUM (§ Netjrocallis) PU.ESTANTISSTMUM, Bory. Beautiful Neurocallis. Acrostiohum (§ Neurocallis) prastnnlissimmn; caudex short, erect; fronds ample, including the stipes (about equal in length to the frond), three to four feet high or more, tufted, ovate, or oblong, pinnated ; pinna; twelve to thirteen to twenty-six, five to ten inches loftg, two inches broad, subcoriaceo- membranaceous, inarticulate; sterile ones oblong, more or less suddenly acuminate, sessile, obliquely cuneate at the base, strongly costate; veins uniformly reticulated; the areoles oblong, hexagonal, transverse ; fertile as long as the sterile ones, narrow linear oblong, one-third or half an inch wide, finely acuminate, the margin subinvolucrate ; areoles of the veins longi- tudinal ; sori covering the whole back of the pintne, except the costa, some- times forming a broad band, only extending half-way to the costa, and at other times confined to a narrow line at the margin, as in Pteris, and then closely covered with a narrow pteridoid involucre; stipes and rachis tawny- red, glossy. Acrostiohum prsestantissimum. Bory in Pee. Neurocallis prsestantissima. Pee, Acrostich. p. 89. t. 52 (very good). Hab. West Indies, very local. Guadeloupe, L’Herminier in Herb. Nostr.; Dominica, Dr. Imray, n. 65, 74 and 62 (1839).—Cultivated in Horticul- tural Gardens, Kew, from plants sent by Dr. Imray. Truly this is, as M. Fee (the only person who has wrritten on it) remarks, “ la plus belle de toutes les Acrostichees connues : le nom de A.prcestantissimum, donne par M.Bory, lui convient mieux qu’a toute autre.” It is evidently a plant of great rarity, or it would long before have been described by authors. M. Fee speaks of it as being in the herbarium of Mougeot and Bory, from Guade- loupe. It has been distributed with great liberality by the Professors at the Herbarium of the Museum of Paris, and I am indebted to them for a magnificent native specimen; and I have very little doubt that Messrs. Mougeot and Bory derived their specimens from the same source. I have the good fortune to possess equally fine specimens from Dominica, from Dr. Imray; and that gentleman has favoured us with a living and now very flourishing plant, from which our figure has been entirely derived. No other country than the above two West Indian Islands, as far as I know, possess this plant. MARCH 1st, 1862.M. Fee has observed, “ Quelques frondules (pinnae) ne sont chargees de sporanges quesurles bords, ce qui les fait ressembler a certaines especes de Pteropsi-s.” This is of common occurrence both on our living and native dried specimens ; but that is not all, for there is in that state a distinct, narrow, continuous in- volucre, as in Pteris, closely covering the sori, represented at our figs. 2 and 3 : and, if the more perfect fertile pinnae be carefully observed, a very contracted involucre may be seen (at our fig. 5), but more distinctly on the back of the pinnae, where a narrow indexed margin clearly shows an approach to the genus Lomaria. Few Fern groups are in a more unsettled state than that of which the genus Acrostichum is the type ; and this is mainly due to the prevalent desire to multiply genera on slight grounds. Fee’s genus, Neurocallis, was restricted to the present and the very little-known Acrostichum Requieniamm, from the Moluccas. To these Presl added the Leptochilus lomarioides, of Blume ; and Moore the A. aureo-nitens, Hook., and Acrostichum scandens of Raddi, together with two species of his genus Chorizopteris, C. bipinnata and C. pinnata, Moore, in ‘ Gard. Chron.’ 1S55, p. 854; but I do not find any such plants described there. Plate 58. Pig. 1. Very reduced figure of a plant, with sterile and fertile fronds, of Acrostichum (§ Neurocallis) preeslantissimum, Bory. 2. Pinna: from a barren frond, but in an abnormal state, with marginal sori and a pteridoid in- volucre. 3. Portion of the same, magnified, showing the involucrate sorus and the venation:—magnified. 4. Upper portion of a fertile frond,—natural size. 5. Small portion of a fertile pinna, with some of the capsules removed to show the venation,—magnified.WFitchy del. et lith.Plate 59. PTERIS semipinnata, Linn. Semi-pinnated Pteris. Pteris (§ Eupteris) semipinnata ; caudex stout, creeping, villous rather than squamose, as are aEo the glossy-brown stipites, about a span long; fronds broad-lanceolate, acuminate, a foot or more long, submembranaceous, pel- lucid, pinnate; inferior pinnm semi-ovate, distant, subpetiolate; superior margin undivided, inferior deeply subpectinato-piunatifid ; the apex long, caudate ; segments oblong or linear, entire (except at the apex and in the sterile fronds, where they are serrated); upper pinnae linear-oblong, un- divided, decurrently confluent at the base ; veins distant, forked. Pteris semipinnata. Linn. Sp. PL p. 1534. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 97. Willd. Sp. PI. p. 388. Ay. Pterid. p. 17. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 2. p. 169. Bentham, FI. Hong-Kong. p. 448. Pteris flabellata. Schlc, Fil. t. 93, not Thunb. Pteris alata. Lam. (not Gaudich.) Pteris dimidiata. Bl. Fit. Fil. Jav.p. 210 (not Willd.) Osb. It. Chin.p. t. 3./. 1. ft. subaqwilatera ; smaller, lower pinnae pectinato-pinnatifid at both margins ; segments of the upper side abbreviated, and gradually reduced to the lowest pinnae, where they are only auricled at the base above. Hook. Sp. Fil. l.c. p. 169. Pteris dispar. Kze. in Bot. Zeit. 1848.^;. 539. Hab. India, Tranquebar, Sylhet, Wattich; Khasya, alt. 3-4000 feet, Thomson and Hoolcer; Ceylon, Mrs. General Walker; Assam, Jenkins, Simons; Java, Blume; Luzon, Cuming, n. 258; Borneo, Barber, Motley; China, Osbeck, Vachell, Alexander; Hong-Kong, Wilford, C. Wriglit; Japan, Miss Nelson, Babington.—Var. /3. Japan, Miss Nelson, Babington, C. Wright; Hongkong, Dr. Lorraine; Loo-Choo, C. Wriglit; Formosa, Wilford.—Cultivated at Kew. An extremely well-marked species. Our var. /3 the late Pro- fessor Kunze considered a distinct species, to which he gave the name of Pt. dispar, it is remarkable for the pinnae being pinnatifid on both sides, sometimes almost equally so; but among my specimens I find all intermediate varieties. It is, however, gene- rally smaller with narrower segments, and these segments more acuminate. Plate 59. Fertile plant of Pteris semipinnata, Linn.,:—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile segment, showing the venation,—magnified. march 1st, 1862.~W. Fitch,, del .et lith.. Vn-icerct Brooks, Imp. Plate 60. TRICHOMANES spicatum, Hedw.jil. Spike-fruited Bristle-Fern. Trichomanes (§ Feea) spicatum.; candex elongated, subrepent, clothed with long, descending, wiry radicles; stipites tufted; sterile ones short, one to three inches long ; fey-tile ones three to live inches long; fronds of two kinds, sterile ones four to five inches long, broad, lanceolate, membranaceous, deeply pinnatifid nearly to the rachis with close-placed, subhorizontal, oblong, obtuse, sinuated, entire segments; veins twice or thrice dichotomous, free, and, as well as the costa and rachis, glanduloso-villous; fertile fronds nar- row-linear, formed of a rachis with copious close-placed funnel-shaped shortly pedicellate involucres, arranged in a distichous spike; receptacle va- riously often much exserted, clothed, bearing copious capsules. Trichomanes spicatum. Hedw.jil. in Web. and Mohr, Beitr. 1. p. 116. Hook. Sp. Fil. 1 .p. 115. Trichomanes elegans. PI. Guian. p. 24. t. 35 (the spike only). Hook. Exot. FI. t. 52. Trichomanes spicisorum. Desv., in Berl. Mag. v. 5. p. 329. Trichomanes osmundioides. Bory, in Pair. Encycl. Bot. v. 8.p. 65. Feea polypodina. Bory, in Diet. Sc. Nat. 6. p. 147 (with a figure). Presl, Hy- menoph. p. 10. Feea spicata. Van den Bosch, Synops. Hymenopli. p. 6. Hab. Tropical America, in very wet shady places, often found incrusted with epi- phytal Jungermanniee, etc.; more frequent in the West India Islands than in the mainland, where it seems to be peculiar to the north of that continent; French Guiana, Martin; Bay of Choco, Isthmus of Panama, Seemann; Trinidad, Jjockhart, Purdie, Crnger; Jamaica, Wilson, March, etc.—Culti- vated in the Fern-stoves at Kew, from plants sent by Dr. Cruger from Trinadad. A very beautiful species, belonging to a group of the genus Trichomanes with dissimilar fronds, and with the sori, in the fertile fronds, arranged in spikes ; by many considered a character of sufficient importance to form a genus to which the name Feea has * been given by Bory, in compliment to the very distinguished ptero- dologist, M. Fee. Some have even gone further, Borv and Presl in particular, and have separated from this group the Trichomanes elegans (see our Plate 2), where the sori, besides being arranged in spikes, are united by a membrane, which is not the case here. It is true the venation is there anastomosing, but that character MARCH 1st, 1862.did not influence the author of the genus; nor does Dr. Van den Bosch sanction this distinction in his most recent arrangement of Hymenophyllacece.* * The latter author forms a new genus of a Tri- cbomanoid plant, which he places next before Feea, Maschalosorus, from French Guiana (Le Prieur), M. Mougeoti, unknown to me, but evidently closely allied to our present Trichomanes, gene- rally distinguished by the “ firms pinnatifida, sori axillares— in that respect very different from the “ frondes heteromorphse ” and “ soni spicati ” of Tr. spicatum. But in our present Plate it will be seen that the fronds are not always of two distinct kinds, but that a sterile frond has sometimes several of its lower seg- ments transformed into sori ; and on another sample in my her- barium, now before me, together with dimorphal fronds, is one frond of which the upper half is fertile, the rest as in a sterile frond, except that here the segments are interrupted and par- tiallg converted into sori. Is it not possible that Maschalosorus of Van den Bosch may be an abnormal form of our plant, with here and there a sterile segment suppressed and a sorus taking its place, which would then become axillary, being in the sinus of two sterile segments ? Plate 60. Pertile plant,, sterile and fertile fronds,—natural sire. Fig. 1. Portion of a sterile segment., showing the venation. 2. Portion of a fertile spike, with two sori:—magnified. * It is indeed not a little remarkable that both Presl and Van den Bosch en- tirely overlook the anastomosing venation in Trichomanes elegans, describing it as “ free and the former author excludes our plant (of Tr. elegans, figured in our Gen. Fil. t. 108, and in our present volume, Plate 2) from his synonyms on account of the union, of the veins! I possess numerous specimens from various parts of Tropical America, and all have the veins distinctly and copiously re- ticulated, as in our figure last, quoted.61 VincerfL Broakajrnp.Plate 61. WOODWARDIA aeeolata, Moore. Netted-veined Woodwardia. Woodwardia (§ Lorinseria) areolata, Moore: caudex creeping, and, as well as the base of the elongated stipes, paleaceous; fronds dimorphous, a span to a foot long; sterile ones subtriangular-ovate, membranaceous, deeply pinna- tifid (pinnate below); segments sixteen to twenty-five, lanceolate, horizon- tally patent, acute or obtuse, finely serrated, subsinuato-lobate, lowest ones or pinnae petiolate; veins everywhere anastomosing; fertile fronds ovato- lanceolate in circumscription, coriaceous, pinnate; pinnae remote, linear; sori approximate, occupying nearly the whole under side of the pinnae be- tween the costa and margin. Woodwardia areolata. Moore, Index Fil. p. xiv. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 3. p. 70. Acrostichum areolatum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1526. Gron. Virg.p. 124. A moan. Acad. v. 1. p. 274. Woodwardia angustifolia. Sm. in Act. Taur. v. 5. p. 411. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 116. Gray, Man. of Bot. N.U. States, p. 593. t. 10./. 1, 2, 3 (excellent). Metten. Fil. Hort. Bot. Lips. p. 66. t. 6./. 67. Woodwardia onocleoides. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. p. 416. Onoclea nodulosa. Mich. FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 272. Sio. Syn. Fil. p. 111. Woodwardia Floridana. Schk. Fil. p. 103. t. 111. Lorinseria areolata. Pr, Epim. Bot. p. 72. Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 207. t. 17 B. Hab. Boggy places, and apparently throughout the United States; most common in the south, but extending as far north as Massachusetts, chiefly near the coast. Unknown, or at any rate unnoticed, as yet, on the west side of the Eocky Mountains, or in any part of California or British Columbia.—Cul- tivated at Kew, in the open border. Woodwardia is one of the finest of the genera of Ferns, and of which six species are known to us, all, I believe, restricted to the northern hemisphere, but there found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. These I have ventured, in my ‘ Species Filicum,’ to divide into three groups, which Presl was disposed to consider so many distinct genera. Pi,ate 61 represents a caudex and stipes together with a barren and fertile frond,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a barren frond, showing the anastomos- ing venation. 2. Portion of a fertile pinna, seen from above. 3. Portion of a fertile pinna, seen from beneath :—magnified. April 1st, 1862.W. Fitch,del etlitb-. ViixeDt Drools, Imp,Plate 62. LINDSiEA ENSIFOLIA, Sw. Sword-leaved Lindscea. IjINDs.ua. (Schizoloma) ensifolia; caudex very short, creeping; stipes a span and more long; fronds firm, membranaceous, simple, or more or less pinnated, six to twelve inches long; pinnae three to eleven or fifteen, all petioled, varying from linear-ensiform to lanceolate or ovato-lanceolate, much acumi- nated, sterile ones subserrated; veins forked, the branches anastomosing and forming large oblong angled areoles; sorus continuing round the whole margins of the pinnm. LindSjEa ensifolia. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 118 and 317. Willd. Sp. PL v. 5. p. 420. Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. 1. 3. Rook. Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 221. Schizoloma ensifolium. J. Sm. Linds.ea lanceolata. Labi.ll. PI. Nov. Holl. v. 2. p. 98. t. 248. f. 1. Brown, Prodr. Nov. Holl. p. 156. LindsjEA membranacea. Kze. in Linnaa, v. 13. p. 121. LindsjEa pteroides. Wall. Cat. n. 2193. Linds/Ea sublobata. Kze. in Linnaa, v. 18. p. 121. Schizoloma Billardieri. Gaud, in Freyc. Voy. Bot.p. 380. t. 17. LindsjEA attenuata. Wall. Cat. u. 2192. LindsjEA longipinna. Wall. Cat. n. 2194. LindsjEA Griffithiana. Hook. Sp. Fil. p. 219. t. 68 B {young or simple state of the frond, yet fertile), and L. pentaphylla, Hook. 1. c. t. 67 A). IIab. Abundant all over the warm parts of continental India and countries and islands in the adjacent seas. In India proper extending from the western to the eastern extremity and through the Malay peninsula to China (from Hongkong, Wilford, one specimen has pinnae ten inches long and an inch and a quarter broad) and the Malayan Islands, Luzon, Java, Borneo, Singapore, etc.; Ceylon, common ; Mauritius; Madagascar (Kaulfuss); Isle of Nissobi, Boivin, extending westward to Natal, Gueinzius, and Graham’s Town, Sanderson, and even to the west coast of Tropical Africa, where it was recently detected in the Nun River, Gustav Mann; Australia, La Billardiere, Brown, Allan Cunningham; probably most abundant in the north, Fitzmaurice River, Albany, Stradbrooke Island, and Moreton Bay, Hill, Dr. F. Mueller; Fiji Islands, Milne, Seemann. It seems nowhere to be an inhabitant of the New World, and Africa only one locality, above * mentioned, has as yet been detected. Cultivated at Kew. As may be judged from tbe copious synonyms above given, this pretty Lindscea has a very extensive geographical range, and the plants being liable to very trifling forms are regarded as ATRIL 1st, 18C)2.species. Three or four forms of frond may often be seen on one plant. Plate 62 represents two states of Lindscea (Schizoloma) ensiformis, Sw., the more perfect form with several pinnae, and a triphyllous one,—natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile pinna, with sorus. 3. Sorus:—more or less mag- nified.63 5- WFitrh, dsletlalb.-Plate 63. MARSILEA macropus, Hook. Long stalk-fruited Mcirsilea, or Narduo. Marsilea macropus; leaves peltate, quaternate, and, as well as the elongated petioles, sericeo-toraentose; leaflets broad-cuneate, erose at the apex; pe- duncles subradical, elongated, two inches long; capsules obliquely ovate, densely and obliquely sericeo-strigosc, transversely but obliquely more or less distinctly marked with lines, and gibbous at the base on one side; caudex creeping, branched. Marsilea macropus. Hook. Ic. Plant, v. 10. t. 909 (or Cent, of Ferns, t. 9). Marsilea quadrifolia, L., var. hirsuta, F. Mueller, in Herb, nostr. ITab. Australia, in low inundated grounds : Lachlan River and Liverpool Plains, All. Cunningham.; Severn River, S. W. Australia, Win. Drummond; Bailing River, Darlachy, and Goodwin, Dr. F. Mueller. Probably common in the interior of Australia, where it supplies, in its small nut-like capsules, an article of food to the miserable natives under the name of Nurdoo.—Not yet introduced alive to our European gardens.* We propose devoting the last two Plates of this Work, now brought to a close with the sixteenth number, to two Perns of some interest, although neither is as yet known in any gardens. The subject of our present Plate is a near ally of a well-known South-European plant, the Marsilea quadrifolia, Linn. Of the genus we have no species native of Britain, but we possess one which belongs to the same group or family, namely, our well- known Pilhoort or Pepperwort (Pilularia globulifera, Linn), lately figured in our ' British Perns,’ t. 37. The M. quadri- folia has long been in cultivation in tanks in our gardens; and M. macropus is readily distinguished by its larger size and the remarkably long stalk to the compressed and obliquely-striated, densely villous fruits. The fruits of this singular plant constitute the Nardoo of the Aborigines of Australia. There are few that have not read the account of the recent Central Exploring Party under Mr. Burke, formed for traversing Australia from Mel- bourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The great feat has been ac- complished, but it has been attended by a loss of life of five out of eleven persons forming the staff1. Could they have provided * Since t,he above was printed, I am informed by my friend Professor Arnott, that young plants have been raised in a tank in the Glasgow Botanic Garden. APRIL 1st, 1862.themselves as easily with the Nardoo,* and prepared it as readily as the natives do, their lives might have been spared to their country, which owed so much to their exertions. The specimens I first received of the Nardoo fruits, if we may be allowed so to call them, were from Captain Washington, hydrographer to the Admiralty, inscribed as “ Nardoo seed, taken from the patch on the spot where Burke died, Cowper’s Creek, near Camp xxxi., lat. 27° 42' south, long. 140° 40' east, collected by E. T. Welch, September 25th, 1861.” These, from their large size and shape and long fulvous sericeo-strigose cloth- ing, I had no hesitation in referring to my Marsilea macropus, of the same country. In a printed catalogue I have very recently received from Dr. Mueller, of the vegetable products sent by the Victoria Government to the International Exhibition of this year, and find a notice under Class III., p. 118, of “Nardoo fruit and flour,” sent (but not yet arrived) by the Exploration Committee, with the remark that they are derived from Marsilea quadr folia, L., var. hirsuta, of Dr. F. Mueller. In this we have both come to the same conclusion, for that plant is identical with my M. macropus. It may still be a question whether it should be looked upon as a species, or distinct from the European M. quadrifolia. I am well aware how very liable aquatic plants are to vary. * In the Narrative of the Expedition, “ Nardoo folds ” are spoken of, mean- ing probably swampy grounds abounding in the Nardoo, and of the occupation of gathering and pounding the Nardoo; and in one place it is said, “Two days after leaving the spot where Burke died I found some gunyahs (bark huts), where the natives had deposited a bag of Nardoo, sufficient to last me a fortnight.” Elsewhere, “We gathered some Nardoo, and boiled the seeds, as we were unable to pound them.” And again : “ On the following day Mr. Wills and I went out to gather Nardoo, of which we obtained a supply sufficient for three days, and finding a pounding-stone at the gunyahs, Mr. Wills and I pounded the seed, which was such slow work that we were compelled to use half flour and half Nardoo.” Plate 63. Fertile plant of the Nardoo, Marsilea macropus, Hook.,—natural size. Fig. 1. One of the leaflets. 2. Capsule, with a portion of the footstalk. 3. Vertical section of the capsule. 4. Transverse section o( the same. 5. One of two bodies contained in the cells of the capsule, consisting of a pyriform sac, including minute granules, represented at Fig. 6. Fig. 7 and 8. Another and larger sac from the cells, including an oval body, which, when broken, is found to contain very minute spores, represented at Fig. it:—all more or less magnified.■6?f, WJPiijjtL.d® it litti. Vlriceant Brooks,IrrcpPlate G4j. TRICHOMANES Malingii, Jlooh. Mr. Maling's Trichomaties. Trichomanes Malingii; caudex long, slender, filiform ; stipites scattered on the caudex, rarely more than an inch long, slender; fronds two to four inches long, oblong-lanceolate, tri-quadripinnate, or rather perhaps pinnatifid, destitute of any wing or foliaceous portion, consisting of racliis alone; the ultimate branches are often forked, and in the fertile fronds almost all the branches are soriferous at the apex, and the whole frond is clothed with a dense stellated pubescence of a ferruginous colour on one side and a pale grey on the other; involucres terminal, subhemispherical, of a thick and firm texture, obscurely two-lipped, and with the lips lobed ; column scarcely exserted, thick, fleshy, fusiform. Hab. Mr. Maling,* it appears, is the fortunate discoverer of this remarkable Hymenophyllaceous Fern on the ranges of Golden Bar, Middle Island, New Zealand, and Mr. Brunner, Surveyor General, Middle Island, on the “ moun- tain-range between Blind Bay and Massacre Bay” (possibly the same locality). This is one of the most distinct of all the kinds of Trichomanes with which I am acquainted; a genus of which the species are in general distinguished by the membranous expansion of the frond, of so delicate and beautiful a nature as of late years greatly to recommend the species for cultivation in our ferneries. In the Trichomanes now under consideration, however, all appear- ance of membrane is absent, and the plant seems reduced to that portion denominated rachis,—in other words, the continuation of the stipes and rachis. Yet it must not be forgotten that we have a structure of nearly the same kind in my Trichomanes Pluma, from Borneo, figured in the ‘ Century of Ferns,’ t. 97. But there the whole texture is conspicuously (for so small a plant) cellular. I have no hesitation in placing it in the same genus. Another re- * In a letter from my valued correspondent W. T. Luke Travers, Esq., dated Christchurch, New Zealand, 6th July, 1861, I received my first specimen of this plant, stating that it was obtained by Mr. C. Maling, who found it on the “ ranges of Golden Bay, Middle Island, New Zealand,” after whom I at once proposed to name the species. In a subsequent letter from D. Bough, Esq., dated Nelson, New Zealand, 6th November, 1861, to Dr. Hooker, that gentleman sends specimens gathered by Mr. Brunner, Surveyor-General, gathered on “the mountain-range between Blind Bay and Massacre Bay.” Possibly the same range is meant in both cases. APRIL 1st, 1862.markable feature in this little plant is the dense covering of starry pubescence or tomentum, which gives the appearance of some Jungermannia of the tomentella-group, and the colour is, in all the specimens I have yet seen, ferruginous or tawny-brown on one side and pale grey on the other—a circumstance I can only account for by supposing it to grow in masses, of which one sur- face is exposed to a strong light, while the other side is bleached by the absence of light. The involucres are all at the apex of the branches, which seem to be swollen and hollowed out for the reception of the columella and capsules. Plate 64. A fertile plant of Trichomanes Malingii, Hook.,—natural size. Pig. 1. Portion of a fertile primary pinna or segment. 2. Smaller portion. 3. Involucre. 4. The same, with the tomentum removed, in order to show its more exact form, 5. The same, cut through vertically, showing the columella, from which some of the capsules have been removed. 6 and 7. Frond and side view of capsules, with the oblong entire ring of the genus. 8. Capsule, burst. 9. Stellated hair :—all more or less magnified.