tion, he was reduced to assume their existence under опе 
shape or other, by analogy drawn from the portion of vege- 
tation where tbeir presence was incontrovertible; these he 
has concentred in one great class, designated by the title of 
Cryptogamia, divided into natural orders or such as are 
characterized from general structure. It is since his time 
that the term plienogamous has been devised, and only very 
lately that it has come into familiar use to express. that 
portion of vegetation’: where the floral organs are plain and 
obvious, as opposed to the cryptogamous portion, where 
these are not so. Of still fresher date is the term aga- 
mous, suggested by the latest investigations, as applicable 
to a group that has hitherto ranked in Cryptogamia, in 
whose species not only no traces of stamen and pistil are 
detected, but in regard to which the presumption appears to 
be stronger (at least in the opinion of those who have pro- 
posed the distinction) that there are none belonging to 
them; of this nature are Mushrooms, Liverworts, &e. &c. 
The subject of this article holds its place in the crypto- 
gamous division, and іп the order Filices (or Fern-tribe), 
comprising the largest vegetables of this nature that exist, 
some of them in the tropical regions being trees of 24 feet 
high, rivaling the Palms in stateliness of port. It comes 
under the section Gyrate (including those species whose 
nascent frond is-rolled something іп the way of a crosier or 
a sheep crook); and the subdivision Polypodiacee, charac- 
terized by one-celled capsules, girded by a jointed elastic 
longitudinal and usually incomplete ring or hoop, which 
opens by bursting transversely. Its generic station is in 
Асвозтсном, distinguished by sori (patches or groups of 
capsules) of which the contour is of no determinate shape, or 
in other words Бу capsules that beset a part or the whole 
of the under side of the fronds, which last are sometimes 
of two kinds; and by not being furnished with any sort of 
involucre (except where, as is sometimes the case, small 
scales or bristles mingle themselves among the capsules). 
The species is native of the coast of Guinea, Java, and New 
Holland; at least botanists have not yet distinguished be- 
tween the plants peculiar to either of those mutually distant 
countries. The drawing was made from the New Holland 
plant, introduced by Mr. Caley in 1808, with which we 
were kindly furnished by Mr. Aiton, by whom it is con- 
sidered as belonging to the greenhouse. In its native ге- 
